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DOCTRX 



ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION 

STATED AND ASSERTED : 

TRANSLATED IN GREA.T MEASURE FROM. 
THE LATIN OF 

JEROM ZANCHIUS: 

WITH 

SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE PREFIXED? 

AND 

AN APPENDIX 

CONCERNING THE FATE OF THE ANCIENTS. 

ALSO, 

A CAVEAT AGAINST UNSOUND DOCTRINES, 

TO WHICH IS ADDED, 

A LETTER TO THE 

REV. JOHN WESLEY. 



BY AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, A. & 

VICAR OF BROAD-K£MBURY, DEVON. 

NEW-YORK; 

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE LINDSAY. 
Paul 8? Thomas, Printers* 



r> 






( \ 3 



CONTENTS'.. 



Page 
Recommendatory Preface, containing a 

short history of the Rise and Progress of 

Arminianism . . . . . . . ......... o 

A Short Sketch of the Life of Augustus 

Toplady . . - .......... < . . . 15 

Toplady's Preface. — General observations, 
concerning Predestination, Providence, 

and Fate . . . .. . . . . . ... . . 23 

Life of Zanchy ...... . . . ....... 47 

Introductory View of the Divine Attributes 69 

CHAP. I. Explanation of Terms .... 107 

II. Of Predestination at large . . . 117 

III. Of Election in particular . . 129 

IV. Of Reprobation 140 

V. On the Preaching of these Doc- 
trines 163 

Short Dissertation concerning Fate .... 200 
Caveat against Unsound Doctrines .... 209 
A Letter to the Rev* John Wesley .... 367 



RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 



*^C^w 



OF *ft the devices formed by Satan, and em- 
ployed to sully the glory of divine truth, that 
which is now commonly called Arminianism, is 
the most ancient, the most dangerous, and the 
most successful. Since the fall of man, it has 
existed in the world, in every age and in every 
country. It may be called the Religion of our 
fallen nature ; and will never want friends and 
advocates on earth, so long as the spirit of error 
and the corrupt heart are permitted to exert their 
W T icked influence. It is a system of principles, 
stated in direct opposition to the sovereignty of 
God, displayed in the distribution of his favours 
among men ; and is utterly eversive of the whole 
plan of grace revealed in the gospel. It proclaims 
open war against the essential prerogative of Deity 
— his absolute right of determining the final state 
1 



6 RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 

of rational beings, considered as guilty and fallen ; 
and makes the divine purpose entirely dependent 
on the creature's will. The great God is impi- 
ously dethroned, that the vile idol of free will 
may be exalted in his room. The proud usurper, 
being seated on the throne, dares to arraign at 
his bar, every thing human and divine ; and pre- 
sumes to judge, approve, or condemn every arti- 
cle of the divine testimony, and every piece of 
divine conduct, as they appear right or wrong to 
the corrupt heart — the depraved will. 

This is a system founded in ignorance, sup- 
ported by pride, fraught with atheism, and will 
end in delusion. But it is well calculated to gain 
general consent among all who were never tho- 
roughly convinced of the evil of sin, nor felt the 
burden of guilt pressing their consciences ; nor 
have seen the purity of the divine law, their own 
lost and helpless state, and the absolute necessity 
of Christ's righteousness for justification and 
eternal life. The carnal heart is naturally proud, 
and regards, with fond attention, whatever tends 
to flatter its vanity and self-importance. Such is 
the palpable tendency of the Arminianism scheme. 
It gently whispers us in the ear, that, even in a 
fallen state, we retain both the xvillaxid the power 
of doing what is good and acceptable to God :— . 
that Christ's death is accepted by God as an 
universal atonement for the sins of all men ; in 
order that every one may, if he will, save himself 
by his own free will, and good works : — that, in 



RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 7 

the exercise of our natural powers, we may arrive 
at perfection even in the present life, &c. These, 
and the like unscriptural tenets, are so much 
adapted to the legal bias of the corrupt heart, that 
we need not wonder at the favourable reception they 
have met with in every period of the church. 

If we consult the history of past ages, it will be 
found, that this set of corrupt principles has al- 
ways occupied a chief place in the faith and pro- 
fession of corrupt churches. In the latter times 
of the Jewish church, the body of that people 
were so strongly attached to this legal scheme, 
that they utterly rejected Christ and his righte- 
ousness, and went about to establish a righteous- 
ness of their own. The gospel church was no 
sooner planted, than the spirit of error began to 
work. The Arminian leaven in the heart w r as 
set a working by the Arminian or Judaizing 
teachers of these days, which produced such a 
strong fermentation in some churches, that they 
seem to have almost entirely departed from the 
faith. Of this melancholy change the church of 
Galatia presents an affecting instance. The apos- 
tles and other ministers of Christ, by their ser- 
mons, their disputations, and writings, laboured 
hard to stem the torrent, and prevent the infection 
from spreading through the church : But alas, 
this mystery of iniquity continued to work, 
through the fostering care of the father of lies, 
and by the craft and assiduity of his numerous 
emissaries. During the three first centuries of the 



o RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 

Christian church, it was continually on the in- 
crease ; and, about the beginning of the fourth, it 
broke out with open violence under the name of 
the Arian heresy. 

This was little else but a new name clapt upon 
an old mass of error which had been lying in de- 
tached fragments, up and down in the Christian 
world from the beginning. By Arins they were 
all gathered up and artfully formed into one com- 
plete system of falsehood and blasphemy. His 
opposition was chiefly directed against the doc- 
trines of Christ's Eternal Sonship — of His co-es- 
sentiality and co-equality with the Father : but 
his system included in its bosom the very essence 
of the Socinian and Arminian errors. 

In the year of our Lord 325, the pastors of 
the church assembled in a general Council at 
Nice, in Bythinia, to concert measures for check- 
ing the spreading infection. They drew up that 
admirable form of sound words, called the Ni- 
cene Creed, or Confession of Faith. It was 
subscribed by all present ; and even by Arias 
himself, that temporizing arch-heretic ; merely 
to serve a present turn, and with a fixed design 
of throwing off the mask as soon as a favourable 
opportunity should offer. In a few years he 
openly retracted ; and, gaining the ear of the 
Roman emperor, he filled the church with tumult 
and blood, and attempted to banish truth, and 
exterminate its professors from the earth. 

The spirit of error and delusion seemed to be 
let loose from all restraint. Multitudes of new 



RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 9 

heresies suddenly sprung up in almost every 
corner of the church. Pelagius, a British monk, 
in the beginning of the 5th century appeared on 
the stage to plead the cause of error and decry 
the doctrines of grace. The Scripture doctrine 
of absolute and unconditional Predestination he 
boldly denied — asserting that God was directed 
in determining the final state of sinful men by 
his foreknowledge of human actions — Original 
Sin, both imputed and inherent, he counted a 
mere figment — He maintained the modern Armi- 
nian tenet of Free Will in its utmost extent ; af- 
firming that a man retains full power to chuse 
what is good, and to do what is well-pleasing to 
God, without any supernatural aid — That men 
in the present state may attain sinless perfection 
if they only suitably improve their natural 
powers, and the common means of grace— That 
Justification before God is by works, and not by 
faith in the righteousness of Christ. 

This many-headed monster was hatched long 
before the days of Pelagius ; but never till then 
did it assume an aspect so alarming and formida- 
ble. Its venom soon overspread the whole con- 
tinent of Europe, and reached the British Isle. 
As every poison has its antidote, so the cause of 
truth did not then w T ant many noble champions, 
who stood up in its defence. Among others the 
Lord raised up the justly celebrated Austin, who, 
with a bold and well directed stroke, cut off this 
Hydra's head. But the deadly infection had al~ 
\ # 



10 RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 

ready spread too wide to be easily cured. It 
lurked in the bowels of a corrupt and apostati- 
zing church, until it made its way to the Papal 
chair, gained the consent of general councils, 
and became the avowed creed of the antichris- 
tian church. 

At the commencement of the protestant re- 
formation, the standard was again lifted up in de- 
fence of the doctrines of grace. The scriptures, 
which for many ages had lain concealed in the 
musty cabinet of dead languages, were now 
translated into the vulgar tongue of every coun- 
try where the reformation got footing. The in- 
vention of printing greatly accelerated the diffu- 
sion of knowledge ; and the writings of the an- 
cient fathers, particularly of Austin, were eagerly 
sought after, carefully read, and publicly taught 
by the most illustrious reformers, such as, Cal- 
vin, Luther, Zuinglius, Bucer, Melancthon, Zan- 
chius, and others. Men were filled with astonish- 
ment of their former ignorance and infatuation. 
Satan fell, as lightning from heaven, before the 
preaching of the everlasting gospel. His king- 
dom was full of darkness ; but his heart burned 
with rage, and he set every engine to work 
to prevent the total ruin of his interest and em- 
pire. He moved earth and hell against the wit- 
nesses of Christ, and the earth was soaked with 
the blood of the saints. But truth prevailed 
over all the fury of persecution. 

The old and more successful method of oppo- 
sing the cause of God was then tried. Floods 



RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 11 

of error broke in upon the church. Socinus, a 
man of great cunning and considerable learning, 
sent abroad a new edition of the old Avian here- 
sy, with additional strokes of bold blasphemy. 
After him arose Arminius, in Holland, who re- 
vived in a new dress the old Pelagian heresy. 
It caused great convulsions in the seven United 
Provinces ; and occasioned the meeting of the 
famous Synod of Dort^ at which the errors of 
Arminius and his party were solemnly tried, and 
condemned. But the old leaven continued still 
to ferment in the bowels of the church. It stole 
into Britain about the beginning of the last cen- 
tury ; but dared not openly to shew its blotched 
face, until Archbishop Laud introduced it to 
court, and made it the Shibboleth of his party. 
The execution of that haughty and arbitrary 
prelate, with the dispersion of his powerful fac- 
tion, had nearly cleared the island of the Armi- 
nian plague : when lo, a second inundation broke 
in upon the land, at the restoration of king 
Charles II. By his debauched court, every thing 
serious was treated with buffoonery and scorn ; 
but, because the Arminian clergy were found 
more pliant tools for the ruling party; divines 
of this stamp were generally preferred to the 
more considerable ecclesiastical benefices. Eng- 
land was soon overrun with Arminianism, and 
the old-fashioned doctrines of grace were every 
where run down as gross fanaticism^ and their 
abettors stigmatized with the name of enthusi- 
asts* 



12 RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 

The noxious weed was openly transplanted 
into our Scotch soil after the restoration ; when 
our Presbyterian pulpits were invaded and forci- 
bly seized by an army of curates of the corrupt 
communion of the Church of England. The 
prelatical form of church government was in- 
deed pulled down in North Britain, at the revo- 
lution : but not a few of the episcopal incum- 
bents were continued in their charges, and em- 
bodied into our national church, upon very gene- 
ral and equivocal terms. From this impure 
source has sprung much of that corruption of 
doctrine which now overspreads the whole land. 

Deism, or absolute Scepticism seem, in the 
present day, to be the prevailing and fashionable 
creed among many who move in the higher 
spheres of life. Socinianism has of late years 
made very rapid progress among professors of 
different descriptions. But Arminianism of all 
others, is the most prevalent ; and may be styled 
the vulgar error. It comes soliciting our ac^ 
ceptance with all the false charms of a harlot, 
decked out in such captivating colours, as too 
well suit the vitiated and depraved taste of cor- 
rupt nature. It finds an advocate in every man's 
bosom. Its cause is plead by all the strength 
and subtlety of carnal reason. 

As a seasonable antidote against this growing 
evil, the following short treatise and sermon are 
sent abroad, warmly recommended to the atten- 
tion of the public. Many volumes have been 



RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 13 

wrote, on the Arminian controversy : but I have 
met with nothing that more completely, and in 
so concise a manner, cuts it up by the roots. 
This valuable translation pf Zanchy^ on predes- 
tination, came into my hands about two years 
ago ; with some other pieces of Mr. Top lady's 
own works* The manly boldness of the learned 
translator and author, his fervent zeal for purity 
of gospel doctrine, and his masterly way of dis- 
secting and exposing error very much struck and 
pleased me.* I felt much regret that his wri- 
tings should be so little known in Scotland, 
where they are so much needed. To have re- 
published all his works would have required se- 
veral volumes, and, consequently put it out of 
the reach of the poor to become acquainted with 
them. Besides, they are not all equally adapted 
to general edification. Some of them are pro- 
fessedly composed for the meridian of England ; 
and directly pointed against the reigning errors 
of the English clergy. The two pieces selected 
are no less suited to the state of matters on this, 
than on the other side of the Tweed. This 
edition is chiefly intended for the accommodation 
of such as are in narrow worldly circumstances, 



* The greatest men have their peculiarities, their favour- 
ite modes of expression, and are liable to be mistaken in 
some things. The admirable Augustus Toplady, with all 
his excellencies, is not an unexceptionable author, either as 
to matter or manner. But where shall we find such among' 
uninspired men ? Humanum est errare. 



14 RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE. 

and can spare very little for the purchase of 
books. It is put into circulation at one fourth of 
the original cost of the London edition. May 
the Divine Spirit make it extensively useful for 
convincing and reclaiming the erroneous, and for 
comforting and confirming all the true friends of 
the precious doctrines of grace, through the 
churches of Christ. 

ALEXANDER FRINGLE. 

PERTH, 
How 9, 1723. 



A 
SHORT SKETCH 

OF THE LIFE JJYD CHARACTER 

OF 

AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLABY, 

RECTOR OF BROAD-HEMBURYj DEVON. 



iVlR. Toplady^ was second son to Richard 
Toplady, Esq. a major in the army. He was 
born at Farnham, in Surrey, on Tuesday, the 
4th of November, 1740, The first rudiments of 
his education he received at Westminster School. 
He very early discovered an uncommon vigour 
of mind, and made proficiency in the languages 
much beyond most of his contemporaries. He 
used to employ his by-hours, while at the gram- 
mar-school, in writing exercises for such idle or 
dissipated young nobility as either could not, or 
would not write them themselves. By this means 
he sometimes gained three or four shillings a day. 



* The substance of this short account of Mr. Toplady's 
life is taken from the Christian's Magazine, for January, 
1791, with some additions and alterations. 



16 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

After his father's death, his mother (having 
some claims upon an Irish estate) took him with 
her into that kingdom ; and entered him a stu- 
dent in Trinity College, Dublin, where he soon 
took his degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was an 
indefatigable student in every branch of literature 
and science ; but, as he very early devoted him- 
self to the service of Christ in the church, he 
chiefly cultivated those studies which were best 
calculated to make him (through the divine bles- 
sing) an able minister of the New Testament. 
He took much pains to render himself a profici- 
ent in the Hebrew and Greek languages, that he 
might be qualified to read and study the scrip- 
tures of truth iii their sacred originals. His 
writings abundantly shew that he was, in a high 
degree, master of them both. 

About the 15th year of his age, it pleased God 
to bring him under awakenings of conscience, on 
account of the guilt and misery of his natural 
state ;*and to shew him his absolute need of Christ. 
He was a considerable time in great perplexity 
and doubt between the Armiman and Caivinisttc 
schemes. He read with avidity many books on 
each side. At last a kind of Providence brought 
in his way Dr. Manton on the 17th of John: 
which was made the happy mean of giving his 
strong Arminian prejudices the first effectual 
blow. By the time he arrived at his 18th year, 
he had (through the Spirit's supernatural teach- 
ing) attained a clear and settled belief of the doc- 
trines of grace ; and continued to the day of his 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 17 

death a bold and determined enemy to the Armi- 
nian heresy. He used often to say among his in- 
timates, " that he should, when in heaven, re- 
member the year 1758, (the 18th of his age) with 
gratitude and joy. 

He entered into orders on Trinity Sunday, the 
6th of June, 1762. He was soon after inducted 
into the living of Blagdon, in Somersetshire, and 
afterwards into that of Broad-Hembury, in De- 
vonshire. In both charges he shewed himself an 
able, faithful, and zealous servant of Christ; "a 
labourer that needeth not to be ashamed ; rightly 
dividing the word of truth." It was during his 
residence at Broad-Hembury that he composed 
the greater part of those valuable works, which 
will perpetuate and endear his memory to all the 
friends of truth through succeeding ages. He 
occasionally visited London, and soon contracted 
an intimacy with an extensive circle of friends 
there. The lustre of his pulpit talents could not 
be hid. He was much followed, and much ad- 
mired. Three years before his death his health 
began to be much impaired by close study and 
excessive application. He began to apprehend 
that the air of Devon was too moist for one of 
his delicate constitution. By the advice of friends 
he removed to London in the year 1775. But 
he had not well arrived, when he was earnestly 
solicited by his numerous friends, to engage to 
preach in the chapel belonging to the French Re- 
formed, in Leicester Fields. Their pressing im- 
portunities, and an ardent desire of being useful 
2 



18 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

to immortal souls, prevailed over every other con- 
sideration. For a short time he statedly supplied 
that charge. But intense application to study, and 
late sitting, soon wasted his remaining strength, 
and accelerated the premature end of his minis- 
try and labours. He fell into a consumption, 
and entered into his Master's joy on the 11th of 
August, 1778, the 38th year of his life, and the 
16th of his ministry. 

His bodily frame seems to have been rather 
tall and slender ; and his natural temper extreme- 
ly keen and boisterous. Impatient of contradic- 
tion, he was in the heat of disputation, apt to be 
hurried on by the mere impetuosity of his pas- 
sions, to a degree of warmth bordering on dic- 
tatorial insolence. 

His mind was endowed with vast powers of 
conception. His understanding was clear and 
capacious, his judgment solid and correct, his 
imagination lively, and his invention uncommon- 
ly prompt and fertile. His great natural powers 
were much improved by a liberal education and 
close study. His early acquaintance with the power 
of religion induced him to delight much in the stu- 
dy of the scriptures. He soon acquired, under 
divine influence, a very accurate and extensive 
knowledge of the word of God. In his public 
labours he eminently deserved the noble charac- 
ter of Apollos, " A man mighty in the scrip- 
tures." His writings clearly show his intimate 
acquaintance with the ancient fathers and sys- 
tematic writers. He seems to have inherited a 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 19 

large portion of the zeal and spirit of Austin and 
Broadwardin : and, like them too, to have bent 
the whole force of his genius against the Pelagian 
and Arminian heresies. The narrow escape which, 
through the grace of God, he made, from being 
entangled in the fascinating toils of Arminianism 
might, perhaps, determine him the more to embrace 
every opportunity of exposing the danger to others.. 
Being born and educated in the bosom of a church 
which was overrun with this error, he boldly stood 
forth as a resolute defender of the doctrines of 
grace, from both pulpit and press. Arminians 
of every denomination smarted under his lash* 
This error seems to have been his favourite game ^ 
and, whenever it started, he followed the chace 
until he run it down. So fully was he versed in 
this controversy, that he never seems more mas- 
ter of his subject than when dissecting and con- 
futing Arminianism. Many a sore drubbing poor 
Mr. Wesley, and his adherents, received from his 
able pen. Upon the whole, he was a burning and 
shining light— a skilful champion in the cause of 
God— and a lively and zealous Christian. He 
died as he lived — glorying only in the cross of 
Christ, and triumphing in the freedom and riches 
of adorable grace. 

A little before his death, a report was in circu- 
lation, raised and industriously propagated by 
the Arminian faction, that he had recanted those 
Calvinistic doctrines which he had all along pub- 
licly maintained with such strength of argument 
ajid warmth of zeal* When the false rumour 



20 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

came to his ears, he was filled with much indig- 
nation at this weak and wicked effort of his ene- 
mies against him. And, although he was very 
much weakened through long and severe distress, 
yet he determined openly to contradict this lying 
invention from the pulpit, and close his minis- 
try by exhibiting an open testimony in vindica- 
tion of the doctrines of grace. With the greatest 
fortitude of soul he executed his resolution ; al- 
though his voice was now become so weak that 
he could not be distinctly heard. 

Speaking to a friend about this matter, he said* 
" My dear friend, these great and glorious truths 
which the Lord, in rich mercy, has given me to 
believe, and which he has enabled me, though 
very feebly, to stand forth in the defence of, are 
not (as those who believe not, or oppose them say) 
dry doctrines, or mere speculative points— No :. 
but, being brought into practical and heart expe- 
rience, they are the very joy and support of my 
soul : and the consolations flowing from them, 
carry me far above the things of time and sense." 
In his last moments, he was favoured with much 
comfortable experience of the divine presence ; 
and finished his course under a strong gale of 
sensible assurance. " Oh, what a day of sunshine 
this has been to me !*' (would he sometimes say) 
U I want words to express it- — —it is unutterable. 
Oh my friends, how good is God !— almost with- 
out interruption, his presence has been with me ! 
-—What a great thing it is to rejoice in death !« — 
Christ's love is unutterable !" Some passages of 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 21 

scripture he frequently repeated ; and descanted 
with peculiar emotions of joy and rapture upon 
the latter part of Rom. viii. When very near the 
end of his conflict, on his awaking from a slum- 
ber, he cried out, " Oh what delights ! who can 
fathom the joys of the third heavens ! — I cannot 
find words to express the comforts I feel in my 
soul !— they are past expression. The consola- 
tions of God to such an unworthy wretch are so 
abundant, that he leaves me nothing to pray for 
but a continuance of them. I enjoy a heaven al- 
ready in my soul. My prayers are all con- 
verted into praise. — Nevertheless, I do not for- 
get, that I am still in the body, and liable to all 
those distressing fears which are incident to human 
nature, when under temptation, and without any 
sensible divine support : but so long as the pre- 
sence of God continues with me, in the degree in 
which i now enjoy it, I cannot but think that such 
a desponding frame is impossible." 

Within an hour of his death he called his 
friends and servant, and asked them, If they could 
give him up ? they replied in the affirmative, since 
it pleased God to be so gracious to him : then said 
he, " I bless the Lord you are brought so cheer- 
fully to part with me, and give me up into the 
hands of my dear Redeemer ! it will not be long 
when God will take me ; for no mortal man can 
live, (bursting into tears of joy) after the glories 
which God has manifested to my soul." Soon 
after this, he closed his eyes, and slept in Jesus* 
2 * 



22 THE LIFE AND (JHARACTER, ETC. 

Thus died this great and good man. May- 
such striking displays of divine love and sove 
reign grace encourage all who truly believe in the 
Lord Jesus, to trust him more confidently, to 
love him more ardently, to follow him more sub- 
missively, and to serve him more zealously; in 
the well-grounded hope, that they too, in the end* 
shall find death prove their unspeakable gain* 



PREFACE, 



'- ! «^£?©£73sw 



WHEN I consider the absolute independency 
of God, and the necessary, total dependence of all 
created things on him their first cause j I cannot 
help standing astonished at the pride of impotent* 
degenerate man, who is so prone to consider 
himself as a being possessed of sovereign freedom* 
and invested with a power of self-salvation ; able^ 
he imagines, to counteract the designs^even of /n- 
Jinite Wisdom^ and to defeat the agency of Omni- 
potence itself. Ye shall be as gods, said the 
tempter, to Eve, in Paradise : and ye are as 
gods, says the same tempter now, to her apostate 
sons. — One would be apt to think, that a sugges- 
tion so demonstrably false and flattering, a sug- 
gestion the very reverse of what we feel to be 
our state ; a suggestion, alike contrary to scrip- 
ture and reason, to fact and experience ; could 
never meet with the smallest degree of credit* 
And yet, because it so exactly coincides with 
the natural haughtiness of the human heart ; men 
not only admit, but even relish the deception* 
and fondly incline to believe that the father of 
lies doesj in this instance at least, speak truth* 



24 PREFACE. 

The scripture-doctrine of predetermination, 
lays the axe to the very root of this potent delusion. 
It assures us, that all things are of God. That 
all our times, and all events, are in his hand. 
Consequently, that man's business below is to fill 
up the departments, and to discharge the several 
offices, assigned him in God's purpose, from ever- 
lasting : and that, having lived his appointed time, 
and finished his allotted course of action and suf- 
fering, he that moment quits the stage of terres- 
trial life, and removes to the invisible state. 

The late deservedly celebrated Dr. Young, 
though he affected great opposition to some of 
the doctrines called Calvinistic ; was yet compel- 
led, by the force of truth, to acknowledge, that 
" There is not a fly but has had infinite wisdom 
concerned, not only in its structure, but in its 
destination. " # Nor did the late learned and ex- 
cellent Bishop Hopkins go a jot too far, in assert- 
ing as follows : " A sparrow, whose price is but 
mean, two of them valued at a farthing (which 
some make to be the 10th part of a Roman penny, 
and was certainly one of their least coins,) and 
whose life, therefore, is but contemptible, and 
whose flight seems giddy and at random ; yet it 
falls not to the ground, neither lights any where, 
without your Father. His all-wise Providence 
hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch 
on; what grains it shall pick up : -where it shall 



* Centaur not Fabulous Letter JL 



preface. 25; 

lodge, and where it shall build ; on what it shall 
live, and when it shall die. — Our Saviour adds. 
The very hairs of your head are all numbered. 
God keeps an account, even of that stringy ex- 
crescence. — -Do you see a thousand little motes 
and atoms wandering up and down in a sun- 
beam ? It is God that so peoples it ; and he 
guides their innumerable and irregular strayings. 
Not a dust rises in a beaten road ; but God 
raiseth it, conducts its uncertain motion, and, 
by his particular care, conveys it to the certain 
place he had before appointed 'for it : nor shall 
the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any 
farther. — Nothing comes to pass but God hath 
his ends in it, and will certainly make his own 
ends out of it. Though the world seem to run 
at random, and affairs to be huddled together in 
blind confusion and rude disorder; yet God 
sees and knows the concatenation of all causes 
and effects, and so governs them, that he makes a 
perfect harmony out of all those seeming jarrings 
and discords. — It is most necessary, that we 
should have our hearts well established in the 
firm and unwavering belief of this truth ; That 
whatsoever comes to pass, be it good or evil^ we 
may look up to the hand and disposal of all, to 
God — In respect of God, there is nothing casual, 
nor contingent, in the world. If a master should 
send a servant to a certain place, and command 
him to stay there till such a time ; and, presently 
after, should send another servant to the same 
fplace ;] the meeting of these two is wholly cas& 



26 PREFACE. 

al in respect of themselves, but ordained and fore- 
seen by the master who sent them. So it is in 
all fortuitous events here below. They fall out 
unexpectedly as to us ; but not so as to God. 
He foresees, and he appoints all the vicissi- 
tudes of things."^ 

To illustrate this momentous doctrine, especial- 
ly so far as God's sovereign distribution of grace 
and glory is concerned, was the chief motive 
that determined me to the present publication. In 
perusing the works of that most learned and 
evangelical divine, one of whose performances 
now appears in an English dress ; I was particu- 
larly taken with that part of his Confession of 
Faith (presented A. D. 1562, to the Senate of 
Strasburgh,) which relates to Predestination. It 
is, from beginning to end, a regular chain of solid 
argument, deduced from the unerring word of 
divine revelation, and confirmed by the co-inci- 
dent testimonies of some of the greatest lights 
that ever shone in the Christian church. Such 
were Austin, Luther, Bucer. Names that will 
be precious and venerable as long as true reli- 
gion has a friend remaining upon earth. 

Excellent as Zanchtfs original piece is, I yet 
have occasionally ventured both to retrench and 
to enlarge it, in the translation. To this liberty 
I was induced, by a desire of rendering it as com- 
plete & treatise on the subject as the allotted com- 



* S&rmon upon Providence ; from Matth, x 29, 30- 



PREFACE. 27 

pass would allow. I have endeavoured rather 
to enter into the spirit of the admirable author; 
than with a scrupulous exactness to retail his 
very words. By which means the performance 
will prove, I humbly trust, the more satisfactory 
to the English reader ; and, for the learned one, 
he can at any time, if he pleases, by comparing the 
following version with the original Latin, both 
perceive wherein I have presumed to vary from 
it; and judge for himself whether my omissions, 
variations, and enlargements, are useful and just. 

The Arminians (I know not, whether through 
ignorance, or to serve a turn) affect at present to 
give out, That Luther and Calvin w T ere not agreed 
in the article of Predestination. A more palpa» 
ble mistake was never advanced. So far is it 
from being true, that Luther (as I can easily 
prove, if called to it) went as heartily into that 
doctrine as Calvin himself. He even asserted it 
with much more warmth, and proceeded to much 
harsher lengths in defending it, than Calvin ever 
did, or any other writer I have met with of that 
age. In the following performance, I have for 
the most part, carefully retained Zanchy's quota- 
tions from Luther; that the reader, from the 
sample there given, might form a just idea of 
Luther's real sentiments concerning the points in 
question. 

Never was a publication of this kind more sea- 
sonable than at present. Arminianism is the 
grand religious evil of this age and country. It 
has more or less infected tvcry protestant deno- 



28 PREFACE. 

mination amongst us, and bids fair for leaving us, 
in a short time, not so much as the very profes- 
sion of godliness. The power of Christianity has, 
for the most part, taken its flight long ago ; and 
even the form of it seems to be on the point of 
bidding us farewell. Time has been when the 
Calvinistic doctrines were considered and defend- 
ed as the palladium of our established church, by 
her bishops and clergy ; by the universities, and 
the whole body of the laity. It was (during the 
reigns of Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth, James 
I. and the greater part of Charles I. as difficult 
to meet with a clergyman, who did not preach the 
doctrines of the church of England, as it is now 
to find one who does. — We have generally forsa- 
ken the principles of the reformation ; and Icha- 
bod, or Thy glory is departed, has been written 
on most of our pulpits and church-doors ever 
^ince. 

" Thou, O God, hast brought a Vine out of 
E gypt ; thou hast cast out the heathen, and plant- 
ed it. 

" Thou preparedst room before it, and didst 
cause it to take deep root ; and it filled the land. 

" The hills were covered with the shadow of it, 
and the boughs thereof were like the goodly ce- 
dars. 

" She sent out her boughs to the sea, and her 
branches unto the river. 

u Why hastthou then broken down her hedges,, 
so that all they, who pass by the w r ay, do pluck 
her ? 



PREFACE* 29 

u The boar, out of the wood, doth waste it ; and 
the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 

" Return, we beseech thee, O God of Hosts ! 
Look *down from heaven, and behold and visit 
this vine ; 

a And the vineyard, which thy right hand hath 
planted ; and the branch that thou madest strong 
for thyself ! 

u So will w^e not go back from thee : quicken us, 
and we shall call upon thy name. 

" Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts ! cause 
thy face to shine, and we shall yet be saved." 
Psalm lxxx. 

Never was description more strikingly expres- 
sive of the state our national church is at present 
in! Never was supplication more pertinently 
adapted to the lips of her genuine sons ! 

In vain do we lament the progress of Popery $ 
in vain do we shut up a few private mass-houses ; 
while our presses teem, and our pulpits ring, with 
the Romish doctrines of merit and free will : 
doctrines, whose native and inevitable tendency 
is, to smooth the passage for our fuller coalition 
with Antichrist. If we are really desirous to 
shun committing spiritual adultery with the mo- 
ther of harlots and abominations, we must with- 
draw our feet from the way that leadeth to her 
house. 

Blessed be God, the doctrines of grace are 
again beginning to lift up their heads amongst us : 
a sign, it is to be hoped, that the Holy Spirit hath 
not quite forsaken us ; and that our redemption. 



30 PREFACE* 

from the the prevailing errors of the day, draw- 
eth near. Now, if ever, is the time for all who 
love our church and nation in sincerity, to lend an 
helping hand to the ark ; and contribute, though 
ever so little, to its return. 

The grand objection usually made to that im- 
portant truth, which is the main subject of the 
ensuing sheets, proceeds on a supposition of par- 
tiality in God, should the Calvinistic doctrine be 
admitted.— If this consequence did really follow^ 
I see not how it would authorize man to arraign 
the conduct of Deity. Should an earthly friend 
make me a present often thousand pounds, would 
it not be unreasonable, ungrateful, and presump- 
tuous in me, to refuse the gift, and revile the 
giver, only because it might not be his pleasure 
to confer the same favour on my next door neigh- 
bour ? — In other cases, the value of a privilege or 
of a profession is enhanced by its scarceness. A 
virtuoso sets but a little esteem on a medal, a 
statue, or a vase, so common that every man who 
pleases may have one of the same kind : he 
prizes that alone as a rarity, which really is 
such ; and which is not only intrinsically valu- 
able, but w r hich lies in few hands.— Were all men 
here upon earth, qualified and enabled to appear 
as kings, the crown, the sceptre, the robe of state, 
and other ensigns of majestj, would presently 
sink into things hardly noticeable* The distin- 
guishing grandeurs of royalty, by ceasing to be 
uncommon would quickly cease to be august and 
Striking. Upon this principle it was. that Henry 



PREFACE. 31 

iy. of France, said on his birth-day, " I was 
born as on this day ; and, no doubt, taking the 
world through, thousands were born on the same 
day with me : yet, out of ail those thousands, I 
am, perhaps, the only one whom God hath made 
a king. How signally am I indebted to the pe- 
culiar bounty of his Providence !" — Similar are 
the reflections and the acknowledgments of such 
persons as are favoured with the sense of their 
election in Christ to holiness and heaven. 

" But what becomes of the non-elect ?" You 
have nothing to do with such a question, if you 
find yourself embarrassed and distressed by the 
consideration of it. Bless God for his electing 
love, and leave him to act as he pleases by them 
that are without. Simply acquiesce in the plain 
scripture account; and wish to see no farther 
than revelation holds the lamp. 5 Tis enough for 
you to know, that the Judge of the whole earth 
will do right.— Yet will you reap much improve- 
ment from the view of predestination, in its full 
extent, if your eyes are able steadfastly to look at 
all which God hath made known concerning it. But 
if your spiritual sight is weak, forego the inquiry, 
so far as reprobation is concerned ; and be con- 
tent to know but in part, till death transmits you 
to that perfect state, where you shall know even 
as you are known. Say not, therefore, as the op- 
posers of these doctrines did in St. Paul's days : 
" Why doth God find fault with the wicked ? For 
who hath resisted his will ? If he who only can 
convert them ? refrains from doing it, wdiat room 



32 PREFACE. 

is there for blaming them that perish, seeing it is 
impossible to resist the will of the Almighty ? ,? 
Be satisfied with St. Paul's answer : " Nay, but 
who art thou, O man, that repliest against God V y 
The apostle hinges the matter entirely on God's 
absolute sovereignty. There he rests it; and 
there we ought to leave it.^ 

Were the whole of mankind equally loved 
of God, and promiscuously redeemed by Christ, 
the song which believers are directed to sing 
would hardly run in these admiring strains : To 
him that hath loved us, and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings 



* * Some of the more considerate Heathens treated God's 
hidden will with an adoring reverence, which many of our 
modern Arminians would do well to imitate. Thus Bion 
(KAeo£ xxi Mvfc. 10.) 

*Tis not for man to sit in judgment on the actions of God, 
So Theognis (yy*^. 141, 1420 

<Z)£6t £$ net]* pfie]egov zravrcc reXxri voov. 
We men are foolish in our imagnations, and know nothing: 
But the gods accomplish all things according to their own 
mind. 

And again, (Lin. 687, 688.) 

a^£ JV*sjv ei-sretv. «JVv< rxlo B-$fitq» 
5 Tis not lawful for mortals to enter the lists with the gods, 
nor to bring in an accusation against them. 



PREFACE. <->«•> 

and priests unto God, ike. Rev. i. S, 6. An 
hymn of praise like this, seems evidently to pro- 
ceed on the hypothesis of peculiar election on the 
part of God, and of a limited redemption on the 
part of Christ ; which we find still more explicitly 
declared, Rev. v. 9. where we have a transcript 
of that song, which the spirits of just men made 
perfect are now singing before the throne, and be- 
fore the Lamb : Thou wast slain and hast re- 
deemed us unto God by thy blood, out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation* 
Whence the elect are said to have been redeem- 
ed from among men. Rev. xiv. 4. 

In short, there is no such thing, as casualty 5 
or accident, even in things of temporal concern ; 
much less in matters spiritual and everlasting. If 
the universe had a Maker, it must have a Gover- 
nor, and if it has a Governor his will and Provi- 
dence must extend to all things, without exception. 
For my own part, I can discern no medium between 
absolute predestination and blank Atheism. 

Mr. Rolling if I mistake not, has, somewhere, 
a fine observation to this effect: That " It is 

* Since the above was written, I have met with the fine 
passage to which it refers " Providence delights to conceal 
its wonders under the vail of human operations." Rollings 
Arts and Sciences of the Ancients, vol. 3 p- 480. 

Mr. Hervey has likewise a most beautiful and judicious 
paragraph to the same effect ; where, speaking of what is 
commonly termed accidental death, this admirable writer 
asks : " Was it then a random stroke ? doubtless, the blow 
Came from an aiming, though invisible hand. God presideth 
over the armies of heaven. Gob ruleth among the inhabi- 
3 * 



J4 PREFACE* 

usual with God, so carefully to conceal himself, 
and to hide the agency of his Providence behind 
second causes ; as to render that very often un- 
discernable and undistinguishable from these," 
Which wisdom of conduct, and gentleness of 
operation, (not less efficacious, because gentle and 
invisible,) instead of exciting the admiration they 
deserve ; have, on the contrary, given occasion 
to the setting up of that unreal idol of the brain, 
called chance. Whereas, to use the lovely lines 
of our great moral poet, 

All Nature is but Art unknown to thee ; 

All Chance, Direction which thou canst not see. 



tants of the earth. And God conducteth what men call 
chance. Althing, nothing comes to pass through a blind 
and undiscerning fatality. If accidents happen, they happen 
according to the exact foreknowiedg-e, and conformably to 
the determinate counsels of eternal wisdom. The Lord, 
with whom are the issues of death, signs the warrant, and 
gives the high commission. The seemingly fortuitous disas- 
ter, is only the agent, or instrument, appointed to execute the 
supreme decree. When the king of Israel was mortally 
Wounded, it seemed to be a casual shot. — A certain man drew 
a bow at a venture, (1 Kings xxii. 34.) At a venture, as he 
thought. But his hand was strengthened by an omnipotent 
aid ; and the shaft levelled by an unerring eye. So that 'what 
voe term casualty, is really providence ; accomplishing 
deliberate designs, but concealing its own interposition.—- 
How comforting this reflection ! Admirably adapted to sooth 
the throbbing anguish of the mourners, and compose their 
spirits into a quiet submission ! Excellently suited to dissi- 
pate the fears of godly survivors ; and create a calm intre- 
pidity, even amidst innumerable perils T ? — ilervey's Medita* 
dons; vol 1. p. 27 i 28. 



PREFACE. 35 

Words are only so far valuable, as they are- 
the vehicles of meaning. And meaning, or ideas, 
derive their whole value from their having some 
foundation in reason, reality,. and fact. Was I, 
therefore, to be concerned in drawing up an Ex- 
purgatory Index to language, I would, without 
mercy, cashier and proscribe such words as chance, 
fortune, luck, casualty, contingency, and mishap. 
Nor unjustly — For they are Voces, and prseterea 
nihil. Mere terms without ideas. Absolute 
expletives, which import nothing. Unmeaning 
cyphers, either proudly invented to hide man's 
ignorance of real causes, or sacrilegiously de- 
signed to rob the Deity of the honours due to his 
wisdom, providence, and power. 

Reason and Revelation are perfect unisons, in 
assuring us, that God is the supreme, indepen- 
dent first cause ; of whom, all secondary and in- 
ferior causes are no more than the effects. Else, 
proper originality and absolute wisdom, unlimited 
supremacy and almighty power, cease to be at- 
tributes of Deity. — I remember to have heard an 
interesting anecdote of King William and Bishop 
Burnet. The Arminian prelate affected to won- 
der u how a person, of his Majesty's piety and 
good sense, could so rootedly believe the doctrine 
of absolute predestination." The Royal Calvin- 
ist replied — Did I not believe absolute predes- 
tination, I could not believe a providence. For, 
it would be most absurd to suppose that a Being 
of infinite wisdom would act without apian : for 
which plan, predestination is only another name. 



36 PREFACE. 

What, indeed, is predestination, but God 5 s de- 
terminate plan of action ? and what is providence, 
but the evolution of that plan ? In his decree, 
God resolved within himself what he would do, 
and what he would permit to be done : By his 
providence, this effective and permissive will 
passes into external act, and has its positive ac- 
complishment. So that the purpose of God, as 
it were, draws the out-lines, and providence lays 
on the colours. What that designed, this com- 
pletes : what that ordained, this e ecutes. Pre- 
destination is analogous to the mind and inten- 
tion ; providence, to the hand and agency of the 
artificer. Hence, we are told, that God worketh 
[there's his providence'] all things, after the coun- 
sel of his own will [there's his decree,] Eph. i. 11. 
And again, he doth according to his will, in 
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of 
the earth : and none can stay his hand [i. e. his 
will, and the execution of it, are irresistible,] nor 
say unto him, w^hat dost thou ? i. e. his purpose 
and providence are sovereign, and for which he 
will not be accountable to his creatures. Dan. 
iv. 35* 

According, therefore, to the Scripture repre- 
sentation, Providence neither acts vaguely and at 
random, like a blind archer, who shoots uncer- 
tainly in the dark, as well as he can ; nor yet 
pro re nata, or as the unforeseen exigence of 
affairs may require : like some blundering states- 
man, who plunges (it may be) his country and 
himself into difficulties, and then is forced to un- 



PREFACE* 37 

ravel his cobweb, and reverse his plan of opera- 
tions, as the best remedy for those disasters, 
which the court-spider had not the wisdom to 
foresee. But shall we say this of God ? It were 
blasphemy. He that dwelleth in heaven, laugheth 
all these miserable after-thoughts to scorn. God, 
who can neither be over-reached, nor overpower- 
ed, has all these wretched post-expedients in 
derision. He is incapable of mistake. He knows 
no levity of will. He cannot be surprised with 
any unforeseen inconveniences. His throne is in 
heaven, and his kingdom ruleth over all. What- 
ever, therefore, comes to pass, comes to pass as 
a part of the original plan : and is the offspring 
of that prolific series of causes and effects, which 
owes its birth to the ordaining and permissive 
will of him, in whom we all live, and are moved,^ 
and have our being. Providence, in time, is the 
hand that delivers God's purpose, of those beings 
and events, with which that purpose was preg- 
nant from everlasting. The doctrine of equivo- 
cal generation is not more absurd in philosophy, 
than the doctrine of unpredestinated events is in 
theology. 

Thus, the long train of things is, though 

A mighty maze, yet not without a plan, 

God^s sovereign will is the first link ; his itnalter~ 
able decree is the second; and his all active pro- 
vidence the third, in the great chain of causes. 

* Ktvxuttix- Acts xvii. 2& 



38 PREFACE. 

What his will determined, that his decree esta- 
blished, and his providence either mediately or 
immediately effects. His will was the adorable 
spring of all, his decree marked out the chan- 
nel, and his providence directs the stream. 

" If so," it may be objected, " It will follow, 
that whatever is, is right" Consequences can- 
not be helped. No doubt, God, who does no- 
thing in vain ; who cannot do any thing to no 
purpose, and still less to a bad one ; who both 
acts and permits with design ; and who weighs 
the paths of men, has, in the unfathomable abyss 
of his counsel, very important (though to us se- 
cret) reasons, for permitting the entrance of moral 
evil, and for suffering both # moral and natural 
evil still to reign over so great a part of the cre- 
ation. Unsearchable are his judgments [*^#7#> 
decrees] and his ways [the methods and dispensa- 
tions of his providence] past finding out. Who hath 
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been 
his counsellor ? For, of him, and through him, 
and to him, are all things. Rom. ii. 33, 34, 36. 
As to myself, I can, through grace, most heartily 
adopt the maxim oiBengelius, Non plus sumere, 
non minus accipere :f I neither wish to know more 

* Gr otitis himself is forced to own, " Quse vero permittun- 
tur Scelera, non carent interim suo Fructu," i. e. even the 
crimes which God permits the perpetration of, are not with- 
out their good consequences. (De Veritat. Kel. 1. 1. sect, 19.) 
A bold saying this! But the sayer was an Arminian: and 
therefore we hear no outcry en the occasion. 

f Ordo Tempo rum, cap. viii. p 3Q2t 



PREFACE. 39 

than God has revealed, nor to remain ignorant 
of what he has revealed. I desire to advance, 
and to halt, just when where the pillar of God's 
word stays, or goes forward. I am content that 
the impenetrable veil, divinely interposed between 
his purposes and my comprehension, be not drawn 
aside, till faith is lost in sight, and my spirit re- 
turn to him who gave it. But of this I am as- 
sured, that echo does not reverberate sound so 
punctually, as the actual disposal of things answers 
to God's predetermination concerning them.— 
This cannot be denied, without dethroning pro- 
vidence, as far as in us lies, and setting up for- 
tune in its room. There is no alternative. I 
defy all the sophistry of man, to strike out a 
middle way. He that made all things, either di- 
rects all things he has made, or has consigned 
them over to chance. But what is chance ? a 
name for # nothing. Arminianism, therefore, is 
Atheis?n. 



* The late learned and indefatigable Mr. Chambers has, in 
his valuable Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, under the word 
chance, two or three observations so pertinent and full to 
this remark, (viz. of chance being" a name for nothing") that 
I cannot help transcribing them. " Our ignorance and pre- 
cipitancy lead us to attribute effects to chance, which have a 
necessary and determinate cause. 

" When we say a thing happens by chance ; we really mean 
no more than that its cause is unknown to us : and not, as 
some vainly imagine, that chance itself can be the cause of 
any thing. From this consideration, Dr. Bentley takes occa- 
sion to expose the folly of that old tenet, the world was 
pia&e by chance. 



40 PREFACE. 

I grant that the twin doctrines of Predestina- 
tion and Providence are not without their diffi- 
culties. But the denial of them is attended with 
ten thousand times more and greater. The diffi- 
culties on one side, are but as dust upon the ba- 
lance : those in the other, as mountains in the 
scale. To imagine that a Being of boundless 
wisdom, power, and goodness, would create the 
universe, and not sit at the helm afterwards, but 
turn us adrift to shift for ourselves, like an huge 
vessel without a pilot, is a supposition that sub- 
verts every notion of Deity, gives the lie to eve- 
ry page in the Bible, contradicts our daily experi- 
ence, and insults the common reason of mankind. 

Say'st thou, the course of nature governs all ? 
The course of nature is the art of God. 

The whole creation, from the seraph down to the 
invisible atom, ministers to the supreme will, and 
is under the special observation, government, and 



ft The case of the painter, who, unable to express the foam 
at the mouth of an horse he had painted, threw his sponge in 
despair at the piece, and by chance did that which he could 
not before do by design, is an eminent instance of the force 
of chance. Yet, it is obvious, all we here mean by chance 
is, that the painter was not aware of the effect : or, that he 
did not throw the sponge with such a view. Not but that he 
actually did every thing necessary to produce the effect. 
Insomuch that, considering the direction wherein he threw 
the sponge, together with its Jbrm 9 and specific gravity ; the 
colours wherewith it was smeered, and the distance of the 
nand from the piece; it was impossible, on the present sys- 
tem of things, that the effect should not follow/' 



PREFACE. 41 

direction of the Omnipotent mind : who sees all, 
himself unseen ; who upholds all, himself unsus- 
tained ; who guides all, himself guided by none; 
and who changes all, himself unchanged. 

14 But does not this doctrine tend to the estab- 
lishment of fatality? 1 ' Supposing it even did, 
were it not better to be a Christian fatalist, than 
to avow a set of loose Arminian principles, which 
if pushed to their natural extent, inevitably ter- 
minate in the rankest Atheism ? For, without 
predestination, there can be no Providence ; and, 
without Providence, no God. 

After all, What do you mean by fate ? If you 
mean a regular succession of determined events, 
from the beginning to the end of time ; an unin- 
terrupted chain, without a single chasm ; all de- 
pending on the eternal will and continued influen- 
ence of the great First Cause : this is fate, it 
must be owned, That it and the scripture predes- 
tination are, at most, very thinly divided ; or, ra- 
ther, entirely coalesce. — But if by fate is meant, 
either a constitution of things antecedent to the 
will of God; by which he himself w as bound, ab 
origine ; and which goes on of itself, to multiply 
causes and effects, to the exclusion of the all-per- 
vading power and unintermitting agency ©f an in- 
telligent, perpetual, and particular Providence : 
neither reason nor Christianity allows of any 
such fate as this. Fate, thus considered, is just 
such an extreme, on one hand, as chance is on 
the other. Both are alike, unexistable. 
4' 



42 PREFACE. 

It having been not unusual with the Arminiao 
writers to tax us with adopting the fate of the 
ancient Stoics ; I thought it might not be unac- 
ceptable to the English reader, to subjoin a brief 
view of what those philosophers generally held, 
(for they were not all exactly of a mind) as to 
this particular. It will appear to every compe- 
tent reader, from what is there given, how far the 
doctrine of fate as believed and taught by the 
Stoics, may be admitted upon Christian princi- 
ples. Having large materials by me for such a 
work, it would have been very easy forme to have 
annexed a dissertation of my own upon the sub- 
ject : but I chose to confine myself to a small ex- 
tract from the citations and remarks of the learn- 
ed Lipsius, who seems in his Physiologia Stoi- 
corutri) to have almost exhausted the substance of 
the argument, with a penetration and precision 
which leave little room either for addition or 
amendment. In a cause, therefore, where the 
interest of truth is so eminently concerned, I 
would rather retain the ablest counsel when it can 
be had, than to venture to be myself hefsole ad- 
vocate. 

For my own particular part, I frankly confess 
that, as far as the coincidence of the Stoical fate, 
with the Bible predestination,* holds good ; I 



* " Now I am in some measure enlightened," (says the 
Rev. Mr. Newton, of Olney,) " I can easily perceive, that it 
is in the adjustment and concurrence of seemingly fortuitous 
circumstances, that the ruling power and wisdom of God are 



PREFACE- 43 

see no reason why we should be ashamed to 
acknowledge it. St. Austin, and many other 
great and excellent men, have not scrupled to ad- 
mit both the word [viz. the word fate] and the 
thing properly understood.^ I am quite of Lip- 

most evidently displayed in human affairs. How many such 
casual events may we remark in the history of Joseph, which 
had each a necessary influence in his ensuing promotion! — If 
the Midianites had passed by a day sooner, or a day later ;— 
If they had sold him to any person hut Fotiphar ; — 7jf his mis- 
tress had been a better woman ; — If Pharaoh's officers had 
not displeased their Lord; or, if any, or all these things had 
fallen out in any other manner or time than they did, all 
that followed had been prevented : the promises and pur- 
poses of God concerning Israel, their bondage, deliverances, 
polity, and settlement, must have failed: and as all these things 
tended to and centred in Christ, the promised Saviour ; the 
desire of all nations would not have appeared. Mankind had 
been still in their sins, without hope; and the counsels of God's 
eternal love, in favour of sinners, defeated. Thus we may 
see a connexion between Joseph's first dream and the death 
of our Lord Christ, with all its glorious consequences So 
strong, though secret, is the concatenation between the 

greatest and the smallest events ! What a comfortable 

thought is this to a believer, to know, that amidst all the va- 
rious, interfering designs of men, the Lord has one constant 
design, which he cannot, will not miss : namely, his own glo- 
ry, in the complete salvation of his people \ And that he is 
wise, and strong, and faithful, to make even those things, 
which seem contrary to this design,, subservient to promote 
it !" See p. 96. and seq. of a most entertaining and instruc- 
tive piece, entitled An authentic Narrative of some remark- 
able and interesting Particulars, in the Life of ******, in a 
Series of Letters, 1765. 

* For a sample, the learned reader may peruse the judi- 
cious chapter, De Fato, in Abp. Bradwardin's immortal book 
De Causa Dei, lib- i. cap. 28. 



44 PREFACE* 

sius's mind : u Et vcro non aversabor Stoict no* 
men; sed Stoici Christiana : I have no objection 
to being called a Stoic so you prefix the word 
Christian to it." # 

Here ended the first lesson : i. e. here ended 
the preface to the former edition of this tract. 
A tract, whose publication has raised the indig- 
nant quills of more than one Armxniaa porcu- 
pine. 

Among those enraged porcupines, none has 
hitherto bristled up so fiercely as the high and 
mighty Mr. John Wesley. He even dipt his 
quills in the ink of forgery on the occasion ; as 
Indians tinge the points of their arrows with poi- 
son, in hope of their doing more effectual execu- 
tion. The quills, however, have reverberated^ 
and with ample interest, on poor Mr. John's own 
pate. He felt the unexpected pain, and he has 
squeaked accordingly. I will not here add to 
the well deserved chastisement he has received : 
which, from more than one quarter, has been such, 
as will probably keep him sore, while his sur- 
name begins with W. Let him, for his own 
sake, learn, as becomes a very sore man, to lie 
still. Rest may do him good : motion will but 
add to his fever, by irritating his humours already 
too peccant. Predestination is a stone, by rashly 
falling on which, he has more than once been la- 
mentably broken. I wish him to take heed, in 



Qper. torn. i. Def. Posthum- cap. ii. p. 118. 



PREFACE, 45 

due season, lest that stone at length fall on him. 
For, notwithstanding all his delinquencies, I 
would still have him avoid, if possible, the catas- 
trophe of being ground to powder. 



A* 



SOME ACCOUNT OF 
THE LIFE 

or 

JEROM ZANCHIUS 

xT has been asserted,* that this great divine was 
born at Alzano, a town of Italy, situate in the 
valley of Seri, or Serio. But the learned John 
Sturmiu$i who was not only Zanchy's contempo- 
rary, but one of his most intimate friends, ex- 
pressly affirms in a ^speech delivered on a pub- 
lic and important occasion, That he was nobili: 
natus familia Ber garni ; born of an illustrious 
family at Bergamo, the capital of a little pro* 
vince in the north-west of Italy, anciently a part 
of Gallia Cispadana ; but A. D. 1428, made a 
parcel of the Venetian territory, as it still con- 
tinues.^: I look upon Sturmius*s testimony as* 



* Melch. Adam Vit. Theolog. Exterior, p. 148. and BayleV 
Hist. Diet, under the article Zanchius. 

f Addressed by Sturmius, to the senate of Stratsburg, 
March 20, 1562. and inserted afterwards into the works of 
Zanchy, Tom. vii. part 2. col. 408* 

* Complete Syst of Geog, vol, 1. p. 845. 



48 THE LIFE OP 

decisive : it being hardly credible, that he could 
mistake the native place of a colleague, whom he 
so highly valued, who was living at the very 
time, and with whom he had opportunity of con- 
versing daily* Sturmius adds. That there was 
then remaining at Bergamo, a fortress (built pro- 
bably by some of Zanchy's ancestors) known by 
the name of The Zanchian Tower. 

In this city was our author born, Feb. 2, 1516* 
At the time of his birth, part of the public ser- 
vice, then performing, was, a light to lighten the 
Gentiles, &c. And by God's good providence 
the reformation broke forth the very next year in; 
Germany, under the auspices of Luther ; and' 
began to spread far and wide. 

At the age of twelve years, Zanchy lost his fa- 
ther,* who died of the plague, A. D. 1528. 
His motherf survived her husband but three 
years. Deprived thus of both his parents, Zan- 
chy resolved on a monastic life ; and accord- 
ingly, joined himself to a society of Canons Re- 
gular.^ He did this partly to improve himself in 
literature, and partly for the sake of being with 
some of his relations, who had before entered 
themselves of that house. Here he continued 



* Francis Zanchius ; who seems to have been a native of 
Venice, and was by profession a counsellor. 

f Barbara; sister to Marc Antony Mutius^ a nobleman of 
great worth and distinction. 

* At Lucca. See the Biogr. Diet- vol. viii. p. 267, under 
the article Peter Martyr. 



JEROM ZANCHIUS. 4t% 

nineteen years; chiefly devoting his studies to 
Aristotle, the languages, and school-divinity. 

It was his happiness to become acquainted very 
early in life with Celsus Maximian, count of 
Martinengo ; who, from being like Zanchy, a bi- 
goted papist by education, became afterwards a 
burning and shining light in the reformed church* 
Of our author's intimacy with this excellent no- 
bleman, and its blessed effects, himself gives us 
the following account:^ u I left Italy for the gos- 
pel's sake ; to which I was not a little animated by 
the example of count Maximian, a learned and 
pious personage, and my most dear brother in 
the Lord. We had lived together under one 
roof, and in a state of the strictest religious 
friendship for the greater part of sixteen years ; 
being both of us Canons Regular, of nearly the 
same age and standing, unisons in temper and 
disposition, pursuing the same course of studies, 
and which was better still, joint hearers of Peter 
Martyr, when that apostolic man publicly ex- 
pounded St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and 
gave private lectures on the Psalms to us his 
monks." From this memorable period we are 
evidently to date the sera of Zanchy's awakening 
to a true sight and experimental sense of divine 
things. His friend, the count, and the learned 
Tremellius, were also converted about the same 
time, under the ministry of Martyr. 



* Zancliii Epist ad Lantgrav- Operum. Tom, vii part % 
&)L 4, 



50 THE LIFE OF 

This happy change being effected, our authors 
studies began to run in a new channel. " The 
count," says he, " and myself betook ourselves 
to a diligent reading of the Holy Scriptures ; to 
which we joined a perusal of the best of the fa- 
thers, and particularly St. Austin. For some 
years we went on thus in private, and in public 
we preached the gospel as far as w r e were able in 
its purity. The count, whose gifts and graces 
were abundantly superior to mine, preached with 
much greater enlargement of spirit, and freedom 
of utterance than I could ever pretend to : it was 
therefore, no wonder that he found himself con- 
strained to fly his country before I was. The 
territory of the Grisons was his immediate place 
of retreat ; from whence removing soon after, he 
settled at Geneva, where he commenced the first 
pastor of the protestant Italian church in that city. 
Having faithfully executed this sacred office for 
some years, he at length comfortably fell asleep 
in Christ # ," A. D. 155 8, after having, on his 
death-bed, commended the oversight of his flock 
to the great Calvin. 

It was in the year 1550, that Peter Martyr 
himself was obliged to quit Italy ; where he could 
fio longer preach, nor even stay with safety. To- 
ward the latter end of the same year, eighteen of 
his disciples were forced to follow their master 
from their native land ; of which number Zanchv 



Zanch. ut Supi-a." 



JEROM fcANCHIUS. 51 

was one, Being thus a refugee, or, as himself 
used to express it, " delivered from his Babylon- 
ish captivity," he went into Grisony, where he 
continued upwards of eight months ; and then to 
Geneva, where after a stay of near a twelve- 
month, he received an invitation to England, 
(upon the recommendation of Peter Martyr, then 
in this kingdom,) to fill a divinity professorship 
here ; I suppose at Oxford, where Martyr had 
been for some time settled. Zanchy embraced 
the offer and began his journey, but was detained 
on his way by a counter invitation to Strasburgh, 
where the divinity chair had been lately vacated 
by the death of the excellent Caspar Hedio. 

Zanchy was fixed at Strasburgh, A. D. 1553, 
and taught there almost eleven years ; but not 
without some uneasiness to himself, occasioned 
by the malicious opposition of several, who per- 
secuted him for much the same reason that Cain 
hated righteous Abel, 1 John iii. 12. Matters 
however went on tolerably during the life-time of 
Sturmius, who was then at the head of the uni- 
versity, and Zanchius's fast friend. At Stras- 
burgh it was, that he presented the famous de- 
claration of his faith concerning Predestination^ 
Final Perseverance and the Lord's Supper* He 
gave it in to the Senate, October 22, 1562. Of 
this admirable performance, (i. e. of that part of 
it which respects the first of these points) the 
reader may form some judgment by the following 
translation. 



52 THE LIFE OF 

In proportion as the old senators and divines 
died off, one by one, Zanchy's situation at Stras- 
burgh, grew more and more uncomfortable. 
Matters at length came to that height, that he was 
required to subscribe to the Augsburgh confes- 
sion, on pain of losing his professorship. After 
mature deliberation, he did indeed subscribe ; 
but with this declared restriction, modo orthodoxe 
hitelligatur. Notwithstanding the express limi- 
tation with which he fettered his subscription, 
still this great and good man seems, for peace 
sake, to have granted too much concerning the 
manner of Christ's presence in the Lord's sup- 
per ; as appears by the first of the three theses, 
maintained by him at this time : 1. Verum Chris- 
ti corpus, pro nobis traditum ; &? verum ejus 
sanguine??!) in peccatorum nostrorum remissionem 
effusum ; in Cama vere manducari &? bibi. 
Though the other two positions do effectually 
explain his meaning : 2. Verum id, non ore, &? 
dentibus corporis, sed vera jide. 3. Ideoque, a 
■solis jidelibus. I shall here beg leave to inter- 
pose one question naturally arising from the sub- 
ject. What good purpose do the imposition and 
the multiplication of unnecessary subscriptions, 
to forms of human composition tend to promote ? 
It is a fence far too low to keep out men of little 
or no principle ; and too high, sometimes, for 
men of real integrity to surmount. It often opens 
a door of ready admission to the abandoned ; 
who, ostrich like, care not what they swallow, so 
they can but make subscription a bridge to secular 



JEROM ZANCH1US. 63 

interest : and, for the truly honest, it frequently 
either quite excludes them from a sphere of ac- 
tion, wherein they might be eminently useful, or 
obliges them to testify their assent in such terms, 
and with such open professed restrictions, as ren- 
der subscription a mere nothing. 

Not content with Zanchy's concessions, several 
of the Strasburgh bigots* persisted in raising a 
controversial dust. They tendered accusations 
against him, of errors in point of doctrine ; par- 
ticularly for his supposed heterodoxy concerning 
the nature of the Lord's supper ; his denial of the 
ubiquity of Christ's natural body, and his pro- 
testing against the lawfulness of images, &c. 
Nay, they even went so far, as to charge him with 
unsound opinions concerning predestination and 
the perseverance of the truly regenerate ; so early 
did some of Luther's pretended disciples, after 
the death of that glorious reformer (and he had 
not been dead at this time above fifteen years,) 
begin to fall off from the doctrines he taught, 
though they still had the effrontery to call them- 
selves by his name ! 



* Particularly John Marbach, a native of Schawben, or 
Swabia ; a turbulent, unsteady theologist ; pedantic and abu* 
sive ; a weak but fiery disputer, who delighted to lire in the 
smoke of contention and virulent debate. He was, among the 
rest of his good qualities, excessively loquacious ; which made 
Luther say of him, on a very public occasion, Ori hitjus Suevl 
nunquam aranete poterunt tela* texere t " This talkative Swa* 
bian need not be afraid of spiders ; for he keeps his lips in 
such constant motion, that no spider will ever be able to 
Weave a cobweb on his mouth." 

5 ■ 



34 THE LIFE OF 

A grand occasion of this dissention was a book 
concerning the Eucharist, and in defence of Con- 
substantiation, written by one Heshusius ; a fierce, 
invidious preacher, who lavished the opprobrious 
names of heretic and atheist on all without dis^ 
tinction, whose religious system went an hair's 
breadth above or below his own standard. In his 
preface, he grossly reflected^ on the Elector Pal- 
atine, (Frederic III.) Peter Martyr, Bullinger, 
Calvin, Zuinglius, CEcolampadius,and other great 
divines of that age. Zanchy, in mere respect to 
these venerable names, did, in concert with the 
learned Sturmius, prevail with the magistrates of 
Strasburgh to prohibit the impression. Mr. Bayle 
is so candid as to acknowledge, That " Zanchy 
caused this book to be suppressed, not on account 
of its doctrine, which he left to the judgment of 
the church, but fqr the calumnies of the pre- 
face." Zanchy was a zealous friend to religious 
liberty. He had too great a share of good sense 
and real religion, to pursue any measures which 
simply tended either to restrain men from declar- 
ing their principles with safety, or to shackift the 
human mind in its inquiries after truth. But he 
ardently wished to see the contending parties of 
every denomination carry on their debates with 
christian meekness, modesty, and benevolence ; 
and, where these amiable ingredients were want- 
ing, he looked upon disputation as a malignant 
■ . ■pi * ■ .... . . .. .... , ,. . . 

* Vids Zanc= Op. Tom. vii. part 2. col. 250, 251 



Jerom zanchius. 55 

fever, endangering the health, peace, and safety 
of the church, When candour is lost, truth is 
rarely found. Zanchy's own observations, # sub- 
joined below, exhibit a striking picture of that 
moderation, detachment from bigotry, and libe- 
rality of sentiment, which strongly characterize 
the Christian and the Protestant. 

Notwithstanding the precautions taken by the 
magistrates, Heshusius's incendiary piece stole 
through the press : and Zanchy's eiforts to stifle 
its publication, were looked upon by the author's 
party, as an injury never to be forgiven. They 
left no methods unassayed, to remove him from 
his professorship. Many compromising expedients 
were proposed by the moderate of both parties* 
The chapter of St. Thomas (of which Zanchy 
himself was a canon) met to consider what course 
should be pursued. By them it was referred to 
a select committee of thirteen. Zanchy offered 
to debate the agitated points in a friendly and 
peaceable manner with his opponents : which of- 



* Si. liber iste non fuisset refortus tot calumniis Sc convitiis, 
turn in ipsum principem Palatinum, turn in tot praeclaras ec- 
clesias h ear urn doctores ; ego non curassem in ejus impres- 
sionera impediri. Licet enim unicuique mam sententiam sen* 
btre et explicare. Sed cum audirem tot ecclesias in libro ista 
damnari laacreseos St atheismi ; idque non propter unum aut 
alterum articulum fidei, qui impugnaretur, sed solummodo 
propter interpretation em aliquam verborum, in qua neque te- 
la religio consis tit, neque salus periclitatur:-— adductus fui,ut 
libri istius impressionem, &c 

Zancfa ubi supr» 



56 THE LIFE OF 

fer not being accepted, he made several journies 
to other churches and universities in different 
parts of Germany ; and requested their opinions $ 
which he brought with him in writing. Things, 
however, could not be settled till the senate of 
Strasburgh convened an assembly from other 
districts, consisting partly of divines, and 
partly of persons learned in the laws. These re- 
ferees, after hearing both sides, recurred to the 
old fruitless expedient of agreeing on certain ar- 
ticles to which they advised each party to sub- 
scribe. Zanchy, desirous of laying these unchris- 
tian heats, and, at the same time, no less deter-* 
mined to preserve integrity and a good con- 
science, subscribed in these cautious terms : 
Hanc doctrines formidam ut piam agnosco, ifa 
etiam reczpzo : " I acknowledge this summary of 
doctrine to be pious, and so I admit it." This 
condescension on Zanchy's part was not follow- 
ed by those peaceful effects which were expect- 
ed. The peace was too loosely patched up to be 
of any long duration. His adversaries began to 
worry him afresh ; and just as measures were 
bringing on the carpet, for a new and more last- 
ing compromise, our divine received an invitation 
to the church of Chiavenna ; situate on the bor- 
ders of Italy, and in the territory of the Grisons. 
Augustin Mainard, pastor of that place, was 
lately dead ; and a messenger arrived to let Zan- 
chy know that he was chosen to succeed him. 
Having a very slender prospect of peace at Stras- 
burgh, he obtained the consent of the senate to 



JEKOM ZAJTCHIUSr 57 

resign his canonry of St. Thomas, and professor- 
ship of divinity. Whilst the above debates were 
pending, he had received separate invitations 
to Zurich, Geneva, Leyden, Heidelberg, Mar- 
purg and Lausanne ; but, till he had seen the re- 
sult of things at Strasburgh, he did not judge any 
of these calls sufficiently providential to deter- 
mine his removal. 

He left Strasburgh,^ in November, 1563, and 
entered on his pastoral charge at Chiavenna, the 
beginning of January following. But he had not 
long been there, before the town was visited by 
a dismal pestilence, which, within the space of 
seven months, carried off twelve hundred of the 
inhabitants. Zanchy, however, continued to ex- 
ercise his ministry as long as there was an as- 
sembly to preach to. At length, the far greater 
part of the townsmen being swept away, he re- 
treated for a while with his family to an adjoin- 
ing mountain. His own account is this (Tom. 



* Attended by his servant, Frideric Syllsepurg, a native 
of Hesse : concerning whom Zanchy thus writes ; Discessl 
Argentina, una cum Jido, non tarn famulo, quain amico Cf 
jratrc, Friderico SjlLepurgio, Hesso ; juvene bonorum liter arum, 
jstudiosOi & sance doctrina amanti: "A learned youth, and a 
lover of the gospel ; whom I look upon, not so much in the 
light of a domestic, as of a faithful friend, and a Christian 
brother." 

Oper. T. vii. part 1. col. 36. 
I hardly "know which was most extraordinary : the good 
qualities of the servant, or the gratitude and humility of ihp 
master 

3 # 



58 THE LIFE OI 

vii. part. 1. col. 36, 37.) " Mainard, my pious 
predecessor, had often foretold the calamity with 
which the town of Chiavenna has been since vi- 
sited. All the inhabitants have been too well 
convinced, that that holy man of God did not pro- 
phesy at random. — When the plague actually be- 
gan to make havoc, I enforced repentance and 
faith while I had a place to preach in, or any l con- 
gregation to hear. — Many being dead, and others 
having fled the town, (like ship -wrecked mariners, 
who, to avoid instant destruction, make toward 
what coast they can f) but very few remained : 
and, of these remaining few, some were almost 
terrified to death, others were solely employed in 
taking care of the sick, and others in guarding the 
walls. — They concurred in advising me to con- 
sult my own safety, by withdrawing for a time, 
till the indignation should be overpast. I betook 
myself, therefore, with all my family, to an high 
mountain, not a vast way from the town, yet re- 
mote from human converse, and peculiarly form- 
ed for contemplation and unmolested retirement. 
Here we led a solitary life for three months and 
an half. I devoted my time chiefly to medita- 
tion and writing, to prayer, and reading the scrip- 
tures. I never was happier in my own soul, nor 
enjoyed abetter share of health." Afterwards, 
the plague beginning to abate, he quitted his re- 
treat and resumed the public exercise of his func- 
tion. 

After four years continuance at Chiavenna, 
Frederic III. Elector Palatine, prevailed with 



JEROJVf ZANCHIUS* 59 

him to accept a divinity professorship in the uni~ 
versity of Heidelberg, upon the decease of the fa- 
mous Zachary Ursin. In the beginning of the 
year 1568, Zanchy entered on his new situation ; 
and shortly after opened the chair with an admi- 
rable oration, De conservando in ecclesia pur o put o 
verbo Dei. In the same year he received his 
doctor's degree ; the Elector Palatine, and his 
son prince Casimir, honouring the ceremony 
with their presence. 

He had not been long settled in the palatinate, 
when the Elector (one of the most amiable and 
religious princes of that age) strongly solicited 
him to confirm and elucidate the doctrine of the 
Trinity, by writing a professed treatise on that 
most important subject : desiring himy moreover, 
• to be very particular and explicit in canvassing 
the arguments made use of by the Socinians, 
who had then fixed their head quarters in Poland 
and Transylvania, and were exhausting every ar- 
tifice of sophistry and subterfuge, to degrade 
the Son and Spirit of God to the level of mere 
creatures. Zanchy accordingly employed his 
leisure hours in obeying this pious command* 
His masterly and elaborate treatise, De Dei na- 
tura ; and that De tribus Elohim uno eodemque 
Je/iGva; were written on this occasion: treatises 
fraught with the most solid learning and argu- 
ment, breathing at the same time, the amiable 
spirit of genuine candour and transparent piety* 
Among a variety of interesting particulars, he 
does not omit to inform his readers, that Laelius 



60 TH£ LfFtf OF 

Socinus, and other favourers of the Servetlan hy- 
pothesis, had spared neither pains nor art to per- 
vert his judgment, and win him over to their 
party ; but that, finding him inflexible, they had 
broke off ail intercourse with him, and from art- 
ful adulators, commenced his determined ene- 
mies. An event this, which he even looked upon as 
a blessing, and for which he conceived himself 
bound to render his best thinks to the supreme 
head of the church, Christ Jesus, He retained 
his professorship at Heidelberg ten years ; when, 
the elector Frederic being dead, he removed to 
Newstadt, the residence of prince John Casimir, 
count Palatine. Here he chose to fix his station 
for the present, in preference to two invitations he 
had just received ; one from the university of 
Leyden, then lately opened ; the other from the 
Protestant church at Antwerp. The conduct of 
Divine Providence respecting Zanchy's frequent 
removals is very observable. He was a lover of 
peace, and passionately fond of retirement. But he 
was too bright a luminary to be always continued in 
one place. The salt of the earth must be sprink- 
led here and there, in order to be extensively use- 
ful, and to season the church throughout. Hence,, 
God's faithful ministers, like the officers in a mo- 
narch's army, are quartered in various places ; 
stationed and remanded hither and thither, as may 
most conduce to their master's service. 

The church of Newstadt enjoyed our author 
upwards of seven years. Being by that time far 
advanced in life, and the infirmities of age coming 



JEROM ZANCHIUS. 61 

On him very fast, he found himself obliged to 
cease from that constant series of labour and in- 
tenseness of application, which he had so long and 
so indefatigably undergone. He was, at his own 
request, dismissed from public service at New- 
stadt, by the elector Casimir ; receiving at the 
same time, very substantial marks of respect and 
favour from that religious and generous prince. 

From Newstadt, he repaired once more to 
Heidelberg ; chiefly with a view to see some of 
his old friends. This proved his last removal on 
earth ; for shortly after, his soul now ripe for 
glory, dropped the body, and ascended to heaven 
about six in the morning of November 19, 1590, 
iEt. 75. His remains were interred at Heidel- 
berg, in the college chapel of St. Peter ; where a 
small monumental stone was set up to his memo- 
ry, with this inscription : 

Hieronymi hie sunt condita ossa Zanchii r 
Itali ; exulantis, Christi amore, a patria : 
Qui theologus quantus fuerit et philosophus ? 
Testantur hoc r libri editi ab eo plurimi ; 
Testantur hoc, quos voce docuit in scholis ; 
Quique audiere eum docentem ecclesias. 
Nunc ergo, quamvis hinc migrant spiritu, 
Claro tamen nobis remansit nomine.^ 

Decessit A. mdxc. Die 19 Novem. 



* Here Zanchy rests, whom love of truth constraint! 
To quit his own and seek a foreign land. 
How good and great he was, how form'd to shine. 
How fraught with science human and divine $ 



6£ '*ltE LIFE OF 

I cannot help lamenting, that no more is to he 
collected concerning this incomparable man, thaii 
a few outlines of his life ; comprizing little else 
but a dry detail of dates and removals. 

As to his person, I can find no description of 
it, except from some very old and scarce prints, 
most of which were struck from engravings oh 
wood. These represent him as extremely corpu- 
lent, even to unwieldiness : and yet, from the as- 
tonishing extent, profoundness and exquisite ac- 
tivity of his learning, judgment and genius, one 
might well nigh be induced to imagine, that he 
consisted entirely of soul, without any dead 
weight of body at all : for, of his mind, his wri- 
tings present us with the loveliest image. He 
seems to have been possessed, and in a very su- 
perior degree, of those graces, virtues and abili- 
ties, which ennoble and exalt human nature to 
the highest elevation it is capable of below. His 
clear insight into the truths of the gospel is won- 
derful ! especially, considering that the church of 
God was but just emerging from the long and 
dismal night of Popish darkness ; and himself, 
previous to his conversion, as deeply plunged in 
the shades as any. It is a blessing which but 
few are favoured with, to step, almost at once, 
out of midnight into meridian day. He was tho- 



Sufficient proof his numerous writings give, 
And those who heard him teach and saw him live 
Earth still enjoys him, tho* his soul is fled : 
His nam© is deathless tho' his dust is deasfr 



JEROM 2ANCH1US. 65 

roughly experienced in the divine life of the soul| 
and an happy subject of that internal kingdom of 
God, which lies in righteousness, and peace, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost, This enabled him to sus- 
tain that impetus of opposition, which he almost 
constantly met with. Few persons have ordina- 
rily borne a larger share of the cross, and perhaps 
none ever sustained it better. In him were hap- 
pily centred, all the meek benevolence of charity, 
and all the adamantine firmness of intrepidity : 
qualities, alas, not constantly united in men of 
orthodoxy and learning. 

He was intimately conversant with the writings 
of the fathers, and of the philosophers of that and 
the preceding times. His modesty and humility 
were singular. No man was ever more studious 
to preserve peace in the church of Christ, nor 
more highly relished the pleasures of learned and 
religious friendship. For some time before his 
decease, it pleased God to deprive him of his eye- 
sight : for this I take to be the meaning of the 
excellent Melchior Adamus ;* to whom 1 am in- 
debted for much pf the preceding account. His 
works, which, with his letters, and some other 
small pieces included, are divided into nine 
tomes, were collected and published by his exe- 
cutors some years after his death, and are usually 
bound together in three volumes, folio. He was 
twice married, and had several children; none of 



* His words concerning Zanchy are m senecta qux nunquani 
Ma venit, Jata Isaaci obnoxius. 



64 THE LIFE OF 

which, so far as I can find, appear to have sur 
vived him. 

He is said by Mr. Leigh, ^ to have been one 
*-* of the most scholastical among the Protest- 
ants :" which, however, may be questioned ; his 
style and manner of treating an argument be- 
ing rather plain and solid, than subtil and meta- 
physical. If scholism be an excellence in a wri- 
ter, it is certain that the elder Spanhemius, and 
the great Francis Turretin, have since much ex- 
ceeded Zanchy in that respect. Our learned 
countryman, Mr. Matthew Poole, terms himf 
Theologas ?20?i e multis ; cajus commentaria si7i- 
gulari eruditione atqite laai7nine co7nposita, auc- 
torem snum doctissimum refenint : M A divine of 
the first class ; whose expositions, written with 
extraordinary learning and ability, prove him to 
have been a most accomplished scholar." Even 
Mr. Bayle, who never seems to have been better 
pleased, than when he could pick an hole in the 
gown of an ecclesiastic, though himself was the 
son of one ; yet allows our author to have been 
u one of the most celebrated Protestant divines, 
and that few ministers have been so moderate 
as he." 

Nor must I omit the honour put upon him by 
our university of Cambridge, within five years 
after his death. One William Barrett,^: fellow 



* Account of Rel. and Learn. Men, p. 370. 

f Synops. Criticor. vol. iv. part 2- in Praeioqu. ad Lect ' 

t See Fuller** Hist, of Cambridge, p. 150. 



JEROM ZANCHIU'S. 65 

$f Gonville and Caius college, ventured, April 
29, 1595, to preach an Arminian sermon, in the 
face of the university, at St. Mary's, I say, ven- 
tured ; for it was a bold and dangerous attempt, 
at that time, when the church of England was in her 
purity, for any man to propagate Arminianism :* 
and indeed, Barret himself paid dear for his inno- 
vating rashness ; which ended in his ruin. The 
university were so highly offended, both at his 
presumption in daring to avow his novel, hetero- 
dox opinions, and for mentioning some great di- 
vines, among whom Zanchy was one, in terms of 
the highest rancour and disrespect, that he was en- 
joined to make a public recantation in that very 
pulpit from whence he had so lately vented his 



* As every reader may not have a clear determinate idea 
of what Arminianism precisely is, it may to such be satifac- 
tory to know, that it consists chiefly of five particulars. (1.) 
The Arminians will not allow election to be an eternal, pe- 
culiar, unconditional and irreversible act of God. (2-) They 
assert, that Christ died equally and indiscriminately for every 
* individual of mankind ; for them that perish, no less than for 
them that are saved (3.) That saving* grace is tendered to 
the acceptance of every man ; which he may, or may not re- 
ceive, just as he pleases. Consequently, (4.) That the rege- 
nerating power of the Holy Spirit is not invincible, but is 
suspended for its efficacy on the will of man. (5.) That saving 
grace is not an abiding- principle ; but that those who are 
loved of God, ransomed by Christ, and born ag-ain of the 
Spirit, may (let God wish and strive ever so much to the 
contrary) throw ail away, and perish eternally at last. 

To these, many Arminians tack a variety of errors beside. 
But the above may be considered as a general skeleton, of th$ 
leading" mistakes which characterise the sect* 
6 



^>6 THE LIFE OF 

errors. This he did the 5th of May following* 
Part of his recantation ran^ thus : " Lastly, I 



* Postremo, temere h-sec verba erTudi adversis Johanneth 
Calvinum, virum de ecclesia Christi optime meritum ; Eum 
riimirum ansum fuisse sese attollere supra altissimi & omni- 
potentis Dei vere altissimum et omnipotent Filium. Quibus 
Verbis me viro doctissimo, vereque pio, magnam injuriam fe- 
cisse fateor : temeritatemque hanc meam ut omnes condone- 
tis, humillime precor. Turn etiam quod nonnulla adversus 
Y Martyrem, Theodorum Bezam, Hieso'nymi'M Zanchi- 
um, Franciscum Junium, et easterns ejusdem religionis, Ec- 
clesice nostra lumina & ornament a, acerbissime effuderim ; 
eos odioso nomine appellans Calvinistas, &. aliis verbis igno- 
miniae gravissimam infamise notam inurens. Quos quia Ec- 
clesia nostra merito reveretur, non erat sequum, et ego eorum 
famam violarem, aut existimationem aliqua ratione imminue- 
rem ; aut aliquos e nostris dehortarer, ne eorum doctissima 
scripta legerent. 

Strype's Life of Whit gift. Appendix, p 186, 
I cannot help observing one more particular respecting this 
famous recantation, wherein the recanter thus expressed him- 
self : Secundo, Petri fidem deficere non potuisse, asserui ; at 
aliorum posse, &c. i. e. " I asserted, that Peter's faith indeed 
Could not fail, but that the faith of other believers might ; 
whereas, now being by Christ's own word brought to a better 
and sounder mind, I acknowledge that Christ prays for the 
faith of each believer in particular ; and, that by the efficacy 
of Christ's prayer, all true believers are so supported, that 
their faith cannot fail.'* Barret asserted, rank Arminian as 
he was, that Peter's faith did not actually fail. But we have 
had a recent instance of an Arminian preacher, who avers 
without ceremony, that Peter's faith did fail. The passage, 
verbatim, without adding a jot, o* diminishing a tittle, stands 
thus: " Peter's faith failed ', though Chrut himself prated it 
might not" See a sermon on 1 Cor. ix. 27. preached before 
the university of Oxford, Feb. 19, 1769, by John Allen, M, A* 
rice-principal of Magdalen Hail. p. 1FV 



JEROM ZANCH1US. 6? 

rashly uttered these words against John Calvin^ 
(a person, than whom none has deserved better of 
the church,) namely, that he had presumed to ex-r 
alt himself above the Son of God ; in saying 
which, I acknowledge that I greatly injured that 
most learned and truly pious man ; and I do most 
humbly entreat, that ye will all forgive this my 
rashness. I also threw out, in a most rancorous 
manner, some reflections against Peter Martyr, 
Theodore Beza, Jerom Zanchy, Francis Junius, 
and others of the same religion, who were the 
lights and ornaments of our church : calling them 
by the malicious name of Calvinists, and brand- 
ing them with other reproachful terms. I did 
wrong in assailing the reputation of these persons, 
and in endeavouring to lessen the estimation in 
which they are held, and in dissuading any from 
reading their most learned works ; seeing our 
church holds these divines in deserved reverence" 
I would hope, as our articles of religion have 
not been changed but stand just as they did at 
that very time, that the church of England, in 
the year 1769, still considers the above great men 
(and Zanchy among the rest) as §pme of her an- 
cient lights and ornaments ; and that she 



This is Arminianism double-distilled. The common sim- 
ple Arminianism, that served Barret, and Laud, and Heylin, 
will not do now for our more enlightened divines. Whether 
Peter's faith failed or not, that Mr. Allen's modesty has fail- 
ed him, is, 1 believe, what nobody can deny. 



68 THE LIFE OF JEROM ZANCHIUS* 

holds them and their writings, in the same de- 
served reverence, as did the church of Eng- 
land in the vear 1595-, 



OBSERVATIONS 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES; 

NECESSARY TO BE PREMISED, IN ORDER TO OUR 
BETTER UNDERSTANDING THE DOCTRINE OF 

PREDESTINATION. 

ALTHOUGH the great and ever-blessed God 
is a being absolutely simple v and infinitely remote 
from all shadow of composition : he is, neverthe- 
less, in condescension to our weak and contract- 
ed faculties, represented in scripture, as possess- 
ed of divers properties, or attributes, which, 
though seemingly different from his essence, are 
in reality essential to him, and constitutive to his 
very nature* 

Of these attributes, those on which we shall 
now particularly descant (as being more immedi- 
ately concerned in the ensuing subject,) are the 
following ones; 1. His eternal wisdom and fore- 
knowledge. 2. The absolute freedom and liberty 
of his will. 3. The perpetuity and unchangeable- 
ness both of himself and his decrees. 4. His om- 
nipotence. 5. His justice. 6. His mercy. 

Without an explication of these the doctrine 
of predestination cannot be so well understood : 
we shall, therefore, briefly consider them, by way 
of preliminary to the main subject* 
6 * 



70 

I. With respect to the divine wisdom and fore- 
"knowledge, I shall lay down the following posi- 
tions. 

Pos. 1. God is, and always was, so perfectly 
wise, that nothing ever did, or does, or can, elude 
his knowledge. He knew from all eternity, not 
only what he himself intended to do, but also 
what he would incline and permit others to do. 
Acts xv. 18. a Known unto God are all his 
works, «mt' cum©*, from eternity." 

Pos. 2. Consequently, God knows nothing now, 
nor will know any thing hereafter, which he did 
not know and foresee from everlasting : his fore- 
knowledge being co-eternal with himself, and ex- 
tending to every thing that is or shall be done* 
Heb. iv. 13. All things, which comprises past, 
present and future, are naked and open to the 
eyes of him with whom we have to do. 

Pos, 3. This foreknowledge of God is not 
conjectural and uncertain, (for then it would not be 
foreknowledge) but most sure and infallible : so 
that whatever he foreknows to be future, shall ne- 
cessarily and undoubtedly come to pass. For 
his knowledge can no more be frustrated, or his 
wisdom be deceived, than he can cease to be God. 
Nay, could either of these be the case, he actually 
would cease to be God ; all mistake and disap- 
pointment being absolutely incompatible with the; 
divine nature. 

Pos. 4. The influence which the divine fore- 
knowledge has on the certain futurition of the 
things foreknown, does not render the interven- 
tion of second causes needless, nor destroy the 
nature of the things themselves. 

My meaning is, that the prescience of God 
does not lay any coercive necessity on the wills 
of beings naturally free. For instance, man, 
even in his fallen state, is endued with a natural 



71 

freedom of will ; yet he acts, from the first to the 
last moment of his life, in absolute subserviency 
(though, perhaps he does not know it, nor design 
it) to the purposes and decrees of God concern- 
ing him : notwithstanding which, he is sensible 
of no compulsion, but acts as freely and volunta- 
rily, as if he was sui juris, subject to no control, 
and absolutely lord of himself. This made Z,w« 
ther*, after he had shown how all things necessa- 
rily and inevitably come to pass, in consequence 
of the sovereign will and infallible foreknowledge 
of God, say, that u We should carefully distin- 
guish between a necessity of infallibility, and a 
necessity of coaction ; since both good and evil 
men, though by their actions they fulfil the de- 
cree and appointment of God, yet are not forci- 
bly constrained to do any thing but act willingly." 

Pos. 5. God's foreknowledge, taken abstract- 
edly, is not the sole cause of beings and events; 
but his will and foreknowledge together. Hence 
we find, Acts ii. 23. that his determinate counsel 
and foreknowledge act in concert ; the latter re- 
suiting from, and being founded on, the former. 
We pass on, 

II. To consider the will of God : with regard 
to which we assert as follows. 

Pos. 1. The Deity is possessed not only of 
infinite knowledge, but likewise of absolute /i- 
berty of will : so that whatever he does, or per- 
mits to be done, he does and permits freely, and 
of his own good pleasure. 

Consequently, it is his free pleasure to permit 
sin : since, without his permission, neither men 
nor devils can do any thing. Nov/, to permit, 



* De Serv- Arb. cap. 4& 



7£ 

il, at least, the same as not to hinder, though it 
be in our power to hinder if we please : and this 
permission, or non-hindrance, is certainly an act 
of the divine will. Hence Austin* says, u Those 
things which seemingly thwart the divine will, 
are nevertheless agreeable to it ; for if God did 
not permit them, they could not be done : and 
whatever God permits, he permits freely and 
willingly. He does nothing, neither suffers any 
thing to be done, against his own will." And 
Luther\ observes, that " God permitted Adam 
to fall into sin, because he willed that he should 
so fall." 

Pos. 2. Although the will of God, considered 
in itself, is simply one and the same ; yet, in 
condescension to the present capacities of men, 
the divine will is very properly distinguished 
into secret and revealed. Thus it was his re- 
vealed will, that Pharaoh should let the Israel- 
ites go ; that Abraham should sacrifice his son ; 
and that Peter should not deny Christ, but as 
was proved by the event, it was his secret will 
that Pharaoh should not let Israel go, Exod. iv. 
21. that Abraham should not sacrifice Isaac, 
Gen. xxii. 12. and that Peter should deny his 
Lord, Matt. xxvi. 34. 

Pos. 3. The will of God respecting the, sal- 
vation and condemnation of men, is never con- 
trary to itself; he immutably wills the salvation 
of the elect, and vice versa : nor can he ever 
vary or deviate from his own will in any instance 
whatever, so as that that should be done, which 
he willeth not ; or that not be brought to pass, 
which he willeth. Isai. xliv. 10. My counsel 
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Psalm 



* Enchir. cap. 100. \ De Serv* Art. c. 153, 



73 

xxxiii. 11. The counsel of the Lord standetn 
for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all ge- 
nerations. Job xxiii. 13, 14. He is in one mind, 
who can turn him ? and what his soul desireth, 
even that he doth ; for he perform eth the thing 
that is appointed for me ; and many such things 
are with him. Eph. i. 11. Being predestinated, 
according to the purpose of him, who worketh 
all things after the counsel of his own will. 

Thus, for instance, Hophni and Phineas heark- 
ened not to the voice of their father, who repro- 
ved them for their wickedness, because the Lord 
would slay them, 1 Sam. ii. 25. and Sihon, king 
of Heshbon, would not receive the peaceable 
message sent him by Moses, because the Lord 
God hardened his spirit, and made his heart ob- 
stinate, that he might deliver him into the hand 
of Israel, Deut. ii. 26, 30. Thus also to add no 
more, we find that there have been, and ever will 
be, some whose eyes God blindeth, and whose 
hearts he hardeneth, i. e. whom God permits to 
continue blind and hardened, on purpose to pre- 
vent their seeing with their eyes, and understand- 
ing with their hearts, and to hinder their conver- 
sion to God, and spiritual healing by him, isai. 
vi. 9. John xii. 39, 40. 

Pas. 4. Because God's will of precept may 
in some instances appear to thwart his will of 
determination ; it does not follow, either, 1. that 
he mocks his creatures, or, 2. that they are ex- 
cusable for neglecting to observe his will of 
command. 

(1.) He does not hereby mock his creatures ; 
for, if men do not believe his word, nor observe 
his precepts, the fault is not in him, but in them- 
selves ; their unbelief and disobedience are not 
owing to any ill infused into them by God, but 
to the vitiosity of their depraved nature, and the 



the perverseness of their own wills. Now, if 
God invited all men to come to him, and then 
shut the door of merey against any who were de- 
sirous of entering ; his invitation would be a 
mockery, and unworthy of himself: but we insist 
on it, that he does not invite all men to come to 
him in a saving way : and that every individual 
person, who is, through his gracious influence on 
his heart, made willing to come to him, shall, 
sooner or later surely be saved by him, and that 
with an everlasting salvation. (2.) Man is not 
excusable for neglecting God's will of command. 
Pharaoh was faulty, and therefore justly punish- 
able for not obeying God's revealed will, though 
God's secret will rendered that obedience impos- 
sible. Abraham would have committed sin, had 
he refused to sacrifice Isaac ; and in looking to 
God's secret will, would have acted counter to 
his revealed one. So Herod, Pontius Pilate, and 
the reprobate Jews, were justly condemned for 
putting Christ to death, inasmuch as it was a 
most notorious breach of God's revealed will. 
" Thou shalt do no murder ;" yet, in slaying the 
Messiah, they did no more than God's hand and 
his counsel, i. e. his secret, ordaining will, de- 
termined before should be done, Acts iv. 27, 28. 
and Judas is justly punished for perfidiously and 
wickedly betraying Christ, though his perfidy and 
wickedness were (but not with his design) sub- 
servient to the accomplishment of the decree and 
word of God. 

The brief of the matter is this ; secret things 
belong to God, and those that are revealed belong 
to us : therefore, when we meet with a plain pre- 
cept, we should simply endeavour to obey it, with- 
out tarrying to inquire into God's hidden pur- 
pose. Venerable Bucer, after taking notice how 
God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and making some 



observations on the Apostle's simile of a potte? 
and his clay ; adds,^ that u Though God has at 
least the same right over his creatures, and is at 
liberty to make them what he will, and direct 
them to the end that pleaseth himself, according 
to his sovereign and secret determination ; yet it 
by no means follows, that they do not act freely 
and spontaneously, or that the evil they commit 
is to be charged on God." 

Pos* 5. God's hidden will is peremptory and 
absolute : and therefore cannot be hindered from 
taking effect* 

God's will is nothing else than God himself 
willing: consequently, it is omnipotent and un- 
frustrable. Hence we find it termed by Austin 
and the schoolmen, voluntas pmnipotentissima, be- 
cause, whatever God wills, cannot fail of being 
effected* This made Austin say,f " Evil men 
do many things contrary to God's revealed will ; 
but so great is his wisdom, and so inviolable his 
truth, that he directs all things into those chan- 
nels which he foreknew* 5 ' And again, :j: " No 
free will of the creature can resist the will of God; 
for man cannot so will, or nill, as to obstruct the 
divine determination, or overcome the divine 
power." Once more§ " It cannot be questioned, 
but God does all things, and ever did according 
to his own purpose : the human w r ill cannot resist 
him, so as to make him do more or less than it 
is his pleasure to do, quandoqutdem etiam de ipsis 
hominum voluntatibus quod vult -Jacitj since he 
does what he pleases even with the wills of men. 
Pos. 6. Whatever comes to pass, comes to pass 
by virtue of this absolute, omnipotent will of 



* Bucer ad Rom. ix. f De Civ. Dei. 1. 22, c. 1. 

4 De corr. h Grat. c. 14* § Ibid. 



76 

-God, which is the primary and supreme cause of 
all things. Rev. ix. 11. "Thou hast created all 
things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were 
created." Psalm cxv. 3 u Our God is in the 
heavens ; he hath done whatsoever he pleased." 
Dan. iv. 35. " He doth according to his will, in 
the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants 
of the earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say 
unto him, What dost thou r" Psalm cxxxv. 6. 
" Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in 
heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and deep 
places." Mat. x. 29. " Are not two sparrows 
sold for a farthing f and one of them shall not fall 
to the ground without your Father. To all 
which Austin subscribes when he says,* u No- 
thing is done but what the Almighty wills should 
be done, either efficiently or permissively." As 
does Luther, whose words are these,f " This 
therefore must stand ; to wit the unsearchable 
will of God, without which nothing exists or acts." 
And again, c. 160. " God would not be such, if 
he was not almighty, and if any thing could be 
done without him." And elsewhere, c. 158. he 
quotes these words of Erasmus : " Supposing 
there was an earthly prince, who could do what- 
ever he would, and none were able to resist him ; 
we might safely say of such an Gne, that he would 
certainly fulfil his own desire : in like manner, 
the will of God, which is the first cause of all 
things, should seem to lay a kind of necessity up- 
on our wills." This Luther approves of, and sub- 
joins, " Thanks be to God for this orthodox pas- 
sage in Erasmus's discourse ! but, if this be true, 
w T hat becomes of his doctrine of free will, which 
he at other times so strenuousiv contends for V 9 



Tom. 3. in Enchi. f De Serr. Arb. c. 143. 



7T 

Pos. T. The will of God is so the cause of all 
things, as to be itself without cause ; for nothing 
can be the cause of that, which is the cause of 
every thing. 

So that the divine will is the ne plus ultra of 
all our inquiries : when we ascend to that we can 
go no farther. Hence, we find every matter re- 
solved ultimately into the mere sovereign plea- 
sure of God, as the spring and occasion of what- 
soever is done in heaven and earth. Mat. xi. 
25. u Thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes : 
even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight." Luke xii. 32. " It is your Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom." Mat. viii. 3* 
" I will, be thou clean." Mark iii. 13. " He went 
up into a mountain, and called unto him whom he 
would." Jam. i. 18. u Of his own will begat he 
us, with the word of truth." John i. 13* 
u Which were born not of blood, nor of the will 
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
Rom. ix. 15, 18. * 4 1 will have mercy on whom I 
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on 
whom I will have compassion. Therefore he hath 
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom 
he will he hardeneth." And no wonder that the 
will of God should be the main spring that sets 
all inferior wheels in motion, and should like- 
wise be the rule by which he goes in all his deal- 
ings with his creatures ; since nothing out of God, 
i. e. exterior to himself, can possibly induce him 
to will or mil one thing rather than another* 
Deny this, and you at one stroke destroy his im- 
mutability and independency : since he can never 
be independent, who acts pro renata, as emergen- 
cy requires, and whose will is suspended on that 
of others : not unchangeable, whose purposes vary 
and take all shapes, according as the persons or 
7 



78 

things vary, who are the objects of those purpo* 
ses. Theonly reason, then, that can be assign- 
ed, why the Deity does this, or omits that, is, 
because it is his own free pleasure. Luther y* in 
answer to that question, " Whence it was, that 
Adam was permitted to fall, and corrupt his 
whole posterity, when God could have prevent- 
ed his failing," &c. says, " God is a Being, whose 
will acknowledges no cause : neither is it for us 
to prescribe rules to his sovereign pleasure, or 
call him to account for what he does. He has 
neither superior nor equal ; and his will is the 
rule of all things. He did not therefore will such 
and such things, because they were in themselves 
right, and he was bound to will them ; but they 
are therefore equitable and right, because he wills 
them. The will of man indeed may be influ- 
enced and moved ; but God's will never can. To 
assert the contrary is to undeify him." Bacer 
likewise observes,! " God has no other motive 
for what he does, than ipsa voluntas, his own 
mere will ; which will is so far from being un- 
righteous, that it is justice itself." 

Pos. 8. Since, as was lately observed, the de- 
termining will of God being omnipotent, cannot 
be obstructed or made void ; it follows., that he 
never did, nor does he now, will that every indi- 
vidual of mankind should be saved. 

If this was his will, not one single soul could 
ever be lost: (for who hath resisted his will?) 
and he would surely afford all men those effectual 
means of salvation, without which it cannot be 
had. Now God could afford these means as ea- 
sily to all mankind as to some only : but experi- 
ence proves that he does not ; and the reason is 



* De Serv. Arb. c 153. t Ad Rom - * 



79 

equally plain, namely, that he will not : for what- 
soever the Lord pleaseth, that does he in heaven 
and on earth. It is said, indeed, by the apostle, 
that God would have all men saved, and come to 
the knowledge of the truth ? i. e. as Austin* 
consonantly with other scriptures, explains the 
passage, " God will save some out of the whole 
race of mankind," that is, persons of all nations, 
kindreds and tongues. Nay, he will save all 
men ; i. e. as the same father observes, " every 
kind of men, or men of every kind, 5 ' namely, the 
election of grace, be they bond or free, noble or 
ignoble, rich or poor, male or female. Add to 
this, that it evidently militates against the majes- 
ty, omnipotence, and supremacy of God, to sup- 
pose that he can either will any thing in vain, or 
that any thing can take effect against his will : 
therefore Bacer observes very rightly, ad Rom. 
ix. " God doth not will the salvation of repro- 
bates, seeing he hath not chosen them, neither 
created them to that end." Consonant to whicR 
are those words of Luther, \ " This mightily of- 
fends our rational nature, that God should, of his 
own mere unbiassed will, leave some men to 
themselves, harden them, and then condemn 
them : but he has given abundant demonstration, 
and does continually, that this is really the case ; 
namely, that the sole cause why some are saved, 
and others perish, proceeds from his willing the 
salvation of the former, and the perdition of the, 
latter, according to that of Paul, 4 He hath mercy 
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will 
he hardeneth.' " 



* Enchir. c. 103. k de Corr. & Gi\ <j. 14. t De Sen* 
Arb. c> 161. .,-...: 



80 

Pos. 9o As God doth not will that each indivi- 
dual of mankind should be saved ; so neither did 
he will that Christ should properly and immedi- 
ately die for each individual of mankind ; whence 
it follows, that though the blood of Christ, from 
its own intrinsic dignity, was sufficient for the 
redemption of all men, yet, in consequence of his 
Father's appointment, he shed it intentionally, 
and therefore effectually and immediately, for the 

elect only. 

This is self-evident. God, as we have before 
proved, wills not the salvation of every man : but 
he gave his Son to die for them whose salvation 
he willed ; therefore his Son did not die for every 
man. All those, for whom Christ died, are sa- 
ved; and the divine justice indispensably requires 
that to them the benefits of his death should be 
imparted; but only the elect are saved; they 
only partake of those benefits ; consequently, for 
them only he died and intercedes. The apostle, 
Rom. viii. asks, " Who shall lay any thing to 
the charge of God's elect ? it is God that justi- 
fies," i. e. his elect, exclusively of others: "who 
is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died" 
for them, exclusively of others. The plain min- 
ing of the passage is, that those whom God jus- 
tifies, and for whom Christ died, (justification 
and redemption being of exactly the same extent,) 
cannot be condemned. These privileges are ex- 
pressly restricted to the elect : therefore God 
justifies and Christ died for them alone* 

In the same chapter, Paul asks ; " He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all, (i. e. for all us elect persons) how shall he 
not, with him, also freely give us all things ?" 
i. e. salvation, and all things necessary to it. 
Now, it is certain that these are not given to 



81 

every individual ,• and yet, if Paul says true > 
they are given to all those for whom Christ was 
delivered to death; consequently, he was not de- 
livered to death for every individual. To the 
same purpose St, Austin argues, in Johan. tract. 
45. col. 335. Hence that saying of Ambrose,^ 
" si non credis y non tibi passus est" i. e. if you 
are an unbeliever, Christ did not die for you. 
Meaning, that whoever is left under the power 
of final unbelief, is thereby evidenced to be one 
of those for whom Christ did not die : but that 
all for whom he suffered, shall be, in this life, 
sooner or later, endued with faith. The church 
of Smyrna, in their letter to the diocese of Pon- 
tus, insist every where on the doctrine of special 
redemption.! Bucer, in all parts *~of his works, 
observes, that " Christ died restrictively for the 
elect only ; but for them universally." 

Pos. 10. From what has been laid down, it 
follows, that Austin, Luther, Bucer, the scholas- 
tic divines, and other learned writers, are not to 
be blamed for asserting that *' God may, in some 
sense, be said to will the being and commission 
of sin." For, was this contrary to his deter- 
in V-ing will of permission, either he would not 
be omnipotent, or sin could have no place in the 
world : but he is omnipotent, and sin has place 
in the world ; which it could not have, if God 
willed otherwise ; for " who hath resisted his 
will?' 7 Rom. ix. No one can deny that God 
permits sin: but he neither permits it ignorantly, 
nor unwillingly; therefore, knowingly and wil- 
lingly. Vid Aiist. Enchir. c. 96. Luther stead- 
fastly maintains this in his book de Serv. Arbitr* 
and Bucer in Rom. 1. However, it should be 



* Ambros. Tom. 2. de fid. ad. Grat. 1. 4 c. I 
f Vid, Euseb. Hist. I 4 c> 19, 

7 * 



82 



carefully noticed, (1.) That God's permission o 
sin does not arise from his taking delight in its 
on the contrary, sin, as sin, is the abominable 
thing that his soul hateth : and his efficacious 
permission of it is for wise and good purposes. 
Whence that observation of Austin, 5 * " God, 
who is no less omnipotent than he is supremely 
and perfectly holy, would never have permitted 
evil to enter among his works, but in order that 
he might do good even with that evil," i. e. over- 
rule it for good in the end. (2.) That God's free 
and voluntary permission of sin lays no man 
under any forcible or compulsive necessity of N 
committing it : consequently, the Deity can by 
no means be termed the author of moral evil ; to 
which he is not, in the proper sense of the word, 
accessary, but only remotely or negatively so, in- 
asmuch as he could, if he pleased, absolutely 
prevent it. 

We should, therefore, be careful not to give 
up the omnipotence of God, under a pretence of 
exalting his holiness : he is infinite in both, and 
therefore neither should be set aside or obscured. 
To say that God absolutely mils the being and 
commission of sin, while experience convinces 
-as that sin is acted every day, is to represent 
the Deity as a weak, impotent being, who would 
fain have things go otherwise than they do, but 
cannot accomplish his desire. On the other 
hand, to say that he willeth sin, doth not in the 
least detract from the holiness and rectitude 
of his nature ; because, whatever God wills, as 
well as whatever he does, cannot be eventually 
evil : materially evil it may be ; but, as was just 
said, it must, ultimately, be directed to some 



* Enchir, c 11. 



83 

wise and just end, otherwise he coufd not will 
it : for his will is righteous and good, and the 
sole rule of right and wrong, as is often observed 
by Austin, Luther, and others. 

Pos. 11. In consequence of God's immutable 
will and infallible foreknowledge, whatever things 
come to pass, come to pass necessarily ; though, 
with respect to second causes, and us men, many 
things are contingent : i. e» unexpected, and 
seemingly accidental. 

That this was the doctrine of Luther, none 
can deny, who are in any measure acquainted 
with his works : particularly with his treatise 
De servo Arbitrio, or free will a slave : the maim 
drift of which book is, to prove, that the will of 
man is by nature enslaved to evil only, and, be- 
cause it is fond of that slavery, is therefore said 
to be free. Among other matters, he proves 
there, that, " whatever man does, he does neces- 
sarily, though not with anv sensible compulsion : 
and that we can only do what God from eternity 
willed and foreknew he should ; which will of 
God must be effectual, and his foresight must be 
certain.'* Hence we find him saying,* " It is 
most necessary and salutary for a Christian to be 
assured, that God foreknows nothing uncer- 
tainly ; but that he determines, and foresees, and 
acts, in all things, according to his own eternal, 
immutable, and infallible will;" adding " Hereby, 
as with a thunderbolt, is man's free will thrown 
down and destroyed." A little after, he shews 
in what sense he took the word necessity ; " By 
it," says he, " I do not mean that the will suf- 
fers any forcible constraint, or coaction ; but the 
infallible accomplishment of those things, which 



Cap, 17. in Resp. ad. prsf. 



84 

the immutable God decreed and foreknew con^ 
cerning us," He goes on : " Neither the divine 
nor human will does any thing by constraint : 
but, whatever man does, be it good or bad, he 
does with as much appetite and willingness, as if 
his will was really free. But, after all, the will 
of God is certain and unalterable, and is the go- 
verness of ours." Exactly consonant to all 
which are those words of Luther's friend and 
fellow-labourer, Melancthon :| " All things turn 
out according to divine predestination ; not only 
the works we do outwardly, but even the thoughts 
we think inwardly :" adding, in the same place, 
" There is no such thing as chance, or fortune ; 
nor is there a readier way to gain the fear of 
God, and to put our whole trust in him, than to 
be thoroughly versed in the doctrine of predes- 
tination." I could cite, to the same purpose 
Austin, Aquines, and many other learned men ; 
but, for brevity sake, forbear. That this is the 
doctrine of scripture, every adept in those sacred 
books cannot but acknowledge. See particular- 
ly, Psalm cxxxv. 6. Mat. x. 29. Prov. xvi. 1, 
Mat. xxvi. 54. Luke xxii. 22. Acts iv. 28. Eph. 
i. 11. Isa. xlvi. 10. 

Pos. 12. As God knows nothing now which he 
did not know from all eternity, so he wills nothing 
now which he did not will from everlasting. 

This position needs no explanation nor enforce- 
ment ; it being self-evident, that if any thing can 
accede to God de novo, i. e. if he can at any time 
be wiser than he always was, or will that at one 
time, which he did not will from all eternity ; 
these dreadful consequences must ensue, (1.) 
That the knowledge of God is not perfect, since 



t In Eph. X 



85 

what is absolutely perfect non recipit magis £s? 
minus, cannot admit either of addition or detrac- 
tion. If I add to any thing, it is from a supposal 
that that thing was not complete before ; if 1 de- 
tract from it, it is supposed that that detraction 
renders it less perfect than it was. But the know- 
ledge of God being infinitely perfect, cannot con- 
sistently with that perfection be either increased 
or lessened. (2.) That the will of God is fluctu- 
ating, mutable, and unsteady ; consequently, that 
God himself is so, his will coinciding with his 
essence, contrary to the avowed assurances of 
scripture, and the strongest dictates of reason, as 
we shall presently show when we come to treat of 
the divine immutability. 

Pqs. 13. The absolute will of God is the ori- 
ginal spring and efficient cause of his people's sal- 
vation. 

I say the original and efficient ; For senm com* 
plexo, there are other intermediatecauses of their 
salvation, which however all result from, and are 
subservient to, this primary one, the will of God. 
Such are his everlasting choice of them to eternal 
life, the eternal covenant of grace entered into by 
the Trinity in behalf of the elect, the incarnation, 
obedience, death and intercession of Christ for 
them all, which are so many links in the great 
chain of causes ; and not one of these can be ta- 
ken away without marring and subverting the 
whole gospel plan of salvation by Jesus Christ. 
We see then, that the free, unbiassed, sovereign 
will of God is the root of this tree of life, which 
bears so many glorious branches, and yields such 
salutary fruits : He therefore loved the elect, and 
ordained them to life, because he would, according 
to that of the apostle, u having predestinated us 
— according to the good pleasure of his will." 
Eph, i. 5. Then, next after God's covenant for 



m 

his people, and promises to them, comes in the 
infinite merit of Christ's righteousness and atone- 
ment ; for we were chosen to salvation in him as 
members of his mystic body, and through him as 
our surety and substitute, by whose vicarious obe- 
dience to the moral law, and submission to its 
curse and penalty, all we whose names are in the 
book of life should never incur the divine hatred, 
or be punished for our sins, but continue to eter- 
nity, as we were from eternity heirs of God and 
joint heirs with Christ. But still divine grace 
and favour (and God extends these to whom he 
will) must be considered as what gave birth to 
the glorious scheme of redemption, according to 
what our Lord himself teaches us, John iii. 16* 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son," &c. and that of the apostle, 1 John 
iv. 9. " In this was manifested the love of God 
towards us, because that he sent his only begotten 
Son into the world that we might live through 
him." 

Pos. 14. Since this absolute will of God is 
both immutable and omnipotent, we infer that the 
salvation of every one of the elect is most infalli- 
bly certain, and can by no means be prevented. 
This necessarily follows from what we have al- 
ready asserted and proved concerning the divine 
will, which as it cannot be disappointed or made 
void, must undoubtedly secure the salvation of 
all whom God wills should be saved. 

From the whole of what has been delivered 
under this second head, I would observe, That 
the genuine tendency of these truths is, not to 
make men indolent and careless, or lull them to 
sleep on the lap of presumption and carnal secu- 
rity ; but, (1.) To fortify the people of Christ 
against the attacks of unbelief, and the insults of 
their spiritual enemies : and what is so fit to 



87 

guard them against these, as the comfortable per- 
suasion of God's unalterable will to save them, 
and of their unalienable interest in the sure mer- 
cies of David ? (2.) To withdraw them entirely 
from all dependence, whether on themselves or any 
creature whatever ; to make them renounce their 
own righteousness, no less than their sins in point 
of reliance, and to acquiesce sweetly and safely in 
the certain perpetuity of his rich favour. (3.) 
To excite them from a trust of his good will to- 
ward them, to love that God, who hath given 
such great and numberless proofs of his love to 
men ; and in all their thoughts, words and works, 
to aim as much as possible at his honour and 
glory* 

We were to consider, 

III. The unchangeableness which is essential 
to himself and his decrees. 

Pos. 1. God is essentially unchangeable in him- 
self: were he otherwise he would be confessedly 
imperfect, since whoever changes, must change 
either for the better or for the worse ; whatever 
alteration any being undergoes, that being must 
ipso facto, either become more excellent than it 
was, or lose some of the excellency which it had. 
But neither of these can be the case with the 
Deity : He cannot change for the better, for that 
Would necessarily imply that he was not perfectly 
good before ; he cannot change for the worse, 
for then he could not be perfectly good after that 
change. Ergo, God is unchangeable. And this 
is the uniform voice of scripture. Mai. iii. 6. 
" I am the Lord, I change not." James i. 17, 
1 With him is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning." Psalm cii. 27. " Thou art the same, 
and thy years shall have no end." 

Pos. 2. God is likewise absolutely unchange- 
able with regard to his purposes and promises. 



8S 

Numb, xxiii. 19. " God is not a man, that he 
should lie j neither the son of man, that he should 
repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it ? or, 
hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good I 

1 Sam. xv. 29 " The Strength of Israel will not 
lie, nor repent ; for he is not a man, that he should 
repent." Job x in. 13. " He is in one mind, 
and who can turn him ?" Ezek. xxiv. 14. " I, the 
Lord, have spoken it, it shall come to pass, and 1 
will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, 
neither will I repent." Rom. xi. 29. "The gifts 
and calling of God are without repentance. 

2 Tim. ii. 13. u He abideth faithful, and cannot 
deny himself." 

By the purpose or decree of God, we mean his 
determinate counsel, whereby he did from all 
eternity preordain whatever he should do, or 
would permit to be done in time. In particular, 
it signifies his everlasting appointment of some 
men to life, and of others to death ; which ap- 
pointment flows entirely from his own free and 
sovereign will. Rom. ix. " The children not yet 
being born, neither having done any good or evil, 
(that the purpose of God according to election, 
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth) 
it was said, the elder shall serve the younger : as 
it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have 
i hated." 

The apostle then, in the very next words, anti- 
cipates an objection which he foresaw men of 
corrupt minds would make to this : " What shall 
we say then .' is there unrighteousness with God r 
which he answers with, God forbid ! and resolves 
the whole of God's procedure with his creatures 
into his own sovereign and independent will : 
For he said to Moses, " I will have mercy on 
whom I will have mercy, and I will have com- 
passion on whom I will have compassion." 



89 

We assert, that the decrees of -God are not only 
Immutable as to himself, it being inconsistent wiih 
his nature to alter in his purposes, or change his 
mind ; but that they are immutable likewise with 
respect to the objects of those decrees ; so that 
whatsoever God hath determined concerning every 
individual person or thing, shall surely and in- 
fallibly be accomplished in and upon them* 
Hence we find, that he actually sheweth mercy 
on whom he decreed to shew mercy, and harden- 
eth whom he resolved to harden, Rom. ix. 18. 
"For his counsel shall stand, and he will do all 
his pleasure," Isa. xlvi. 10. Consequently, his 
eternal predestination of men and things must 
be immutable as himself, and, so far from being 
reversible, can never admit of the least variation* 

Pqs. 3. -" Although," to use the words of Gre- 
gory, " God never swerves from his decree, yet 
he often varies in his declarations :" That is al- 
ways sure and immoveable; these are sometimes 
seemingly discordant. So, when he gave sentence 
against the Ninevites by Jonah, saying, Yet forty 
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown, the 
meaning of the words is not that God absolutely 
intended, at the end of that space, to destroy the 
city ; but that, should God deal with those people 
according to their deserts, they would be totalis 
extirpated from the earth : and should be so ex- 
tirpated, unless they repented speedily. 

Likewise, when he told King Hezekiah, by the 
prophet Isaiah, Set thine house in order, for 
thou shalt die, and not live ; the meaning was, 
that with respect to second causes, and consider- 
ing the king's bad state of health and emaciated 
constitution, he could not, humanly speaking, live 
much longer. But still, the event shewed that 
God had immutably determined that he should 
nve fifteen years more ; and, in order to that, had 



90 

put it into his heart to pray for the blessing de- 
creed : just as in the case of Nineveh, lately men- 
tioned, God had resolved not to overthrow that 
city then ; and in order to the accomplishment of 
his own purpose in a way worthy of himself, 
made the ministry of Jonah the means of leading 
that people to repentance. All which, as it shews 
that God's absolute predestination does not set 
aside the use of means ; so does it likewise prove, 
that however various the declarations of God 
may appear, (to wit, when they proceed on a re- 
gard had to natural causes) his counsels and de- 
signs stand firm and immoveable, and can neither 
admit of alteration in themselves, nor of hin- 
drance in their execution. See this farther explain- 
ed by Bucer, in Rom. ix. where you will find the 
certainty of the divine appointments solidly as- 
serted and unanswerably vindicated. We now 
come, 

IV. To consider the Omnipotence of God. 

Pos. 1. God is, in the most unlimited and ab- 
solute sense of the word, Almighty. Jer. xnxiu 
17. Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the 
earth by thy great power and stretehed-out arm, 
and there 'is nothing too hard for thee. Mat. 
xix. 26. With God all things are possible. The 
schoolmen very properly distinguish the omni- 
potence of God into absolute and actual ; by the 
former, God might do many things which he 
does not; by the latter, he actually does whatever 
lie will. For instance ; God might by virtue of 
his absolute power, have made more worlds than 
he has He might have eternally saved every 
individual of mankind, without reprobating any i 
on the other hand, he might, and that with the 
strictest justice, have condemned all men, and 
saved none. He could, had it been his pleasure, 
have prevented the fall of angels and men, and 



91 

thereby have hindered sin from having footing in 
and among his creatures. By virtue of his actual 
power, he made the universe ; executes the whole 
counsel of his will, both in heaven and earth ; 
governs and influences both men and things, ac- 
cording to his own pleasure ; fixes the bounds 
which they shall not pass ; and, in a word, work- 
eth all in all, Isa. xlv. 7. Amos iii. 6. John v. 
17. Acts xvii. 26. 1 Cor xii. 6, 

Pqs. 2. Hence it follows that, since all things 
are subject to the divine control, God not only 
works efficaciously on his elect, in order that they 
may will and do that which is pleasing in his 
sight ; but does likewise frequently and power- 
fully suffer the wicked to fill up the measure of 
their iniquities, by committing fresh sins. Nay, 
he sometimes, but for w r ise and gracious ends, 
permits his own people to transgress : for he has 
the hearts and wills of men in his own hand, and 
inclines them to good, or delivers them up to evil, 
as he sees fit, yet without being the author of sin ; 
as Luther, Bucer, Austin and others, have piously 
and scripturally taught. 

This position consists of two parts ; (1.) That 
God efficaciously operates on the hearts of his 
elect, and is thereby the sole author of all the good 
they do. See Eph. iii. 20. Phil. ii. 13. 1 Thess* 
ii. 13. Heb. xiii. 21. St. Austin* takes no few- 
er than nineteen chapters, in proving that what- 
ever good is in men, and whatever good they are 
enabled to do, is solely and entirely of God ; who, 
says he, u works in holy persons all their good 
desires, their pious thoughts, and their righteous 
actions ; and yet these holy persons, though thus 
wrought upon by God, will and do all these things 
freely : for it is he who rectifies their wills, 



Be Grat. & lib. Arb. a c. 1. usque ad c. 20. 



92 

which, being originally evil, are made good 
by him ; and which wills, after he hath set 
them right and made them good, he directs 
to good actions and to eternal life ; wherein 
he does not force their wills, but makes them 
willing." (2.) That God often lets the wicked 
go on to more ungodliness s which he does, 1. 
Negatively, by withholding that grace, which 
alone can restrain them from evil. 2. Remotely, 
by the providential concourse and meditation of 
second causes ; which second causes, meeting and 
acting in concert with the corruption of the re- 
probate's unregenerate nature, produce sinful 
effects. 3. Judicially, or in a way of judgment* 
Prov. xxi. 1. " The king's heart is in the hand of. 
the Lord, as the rivers of waters ; he turneth it 
whithersoever he will :" And if the king's heart, 
why not the hearts of all men ? Lam. iii. 38. 
*' Out of the mouth of the Most High proceeded* 
not evil and good ?" Hence we find, that the Lord 
bid Shimei curse David, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. That he 
moved David himself to number the people, com- 
pare 1 Chron. xxi. 1. with 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. 
Stirred up Joseph's brethren to sell him into 
Egypt, Gen. 1. 20. Positively and immediately har- 
dened the heart of Pharaoh, Ex. iv. 21. Deli- 
vered up David's wives to be defiled by Absa- 
lom, 2 Sam. xii. 11. and xvi. 22. Sent a lying 
spirit to deceive Ahab, 1 Kings xxii. 20 — 23. 
And mingled a perverse spirit in the midst of 
Egypt, i. e. made that nation perverse, obdurate 
and stiffnecked, Isai. xix. 14. To cite other in- 
stances would be almost endless, and, after these, 
quite unnecessary; all being summed up in that 
express passage, Isai. xlv. 7. I make peace and 
create evil; I the Lord do all these things." 
See farther, 1 Sam. xvi. 14. Psalm cv. 25. Jei% 
xiii. 12, 13. Acts ii. 23. and iv. 28. Rom. xi. g* 



93 

2 Thess. ii. 11. Every one of which implies niore^ 
than a bare permission of sin. Bucer asserts this, 
not only in the place referred to below, but con- 
tinually throughout his works; particularly on 
Mat. vi. s, 2. where this is the sense of his com- 
ments on that petition, lead us not into tempta- 
tion ; " It is abundantly evident, from most ex- 
press testimonies of scripture, that God, occa- 
sionally in the course of his providence, puts both 
elect and reprobate persons into circumstances of 
temptation : by which temptation are meant, not 
only those trials that are of an outward, afflictive 
nature, but those also that are inward and spiri- 
tual ; even such as shall cause the persons so 
tempted actually to turn aside from the path of 
duty to commit sin, and involve both themselves 
and others in evil. Hence we find the elect com- 
plaining. Isa. lxiii. 17. "Q Lord, why hast 
thou made us to err from thy ways, and harden- 
ed our hearts from thy fear ?■" But there is also 
a kind of temptation, which is peculiar to the non- 
elect ; whereby God, in a way of just judgment, 
makes them totally blind and obdurate : inasmuch 
as they are vessels of wrath fitted to- destruction-" 
See also his exposition of Rom. ix. 

Luther] reasons to the very same effect : some 
of his words are these ; " It may seem absurd to 
human wisdom, that God should harden, blind 
and deliver up some men to a reprobate sense ; 
that he should first deliver them over to evil, and 
then condemn them for that evil ; but the believ- 
ing, spiritual man sees no absurdity at all i% 



* Vid Jugustin, de Grat. & lib. Arbitr. c. 20. k 21. kMuccr- 
in Rom. i. sect, 7. 

t De Sen'. Arb. c. & & 146. &- 147. usq. ad. c 1S& 

8 * 



94 

this ; knowing that God would be never a whit 
less good, even though he should destroy all 
men." And again ; " God worketh all things in 
men ; even wickedness in the wicked : for this is 
one branch of his own omnipotence. 55 He very 
properly explains, how God may be said to hard- 
en men, &c. and yet not be the author of their sin ; 
" It is not to be understood (says he) as if God 
found men good, wise and tractable, and then 
made them wicked, foolish and obdurate ; but 
God finding them depraved, judicially and pow- 
erfully excites them just as they are, (unless it is 
his will to regenerate any of them ;) and, by thus 
exciting them, they become more blind and ob- 
stinate than they were before." See this whole 
subject debated at large in the places last refer- 
red to. 

Pos. 3. God, as the primary and efficient cause 
of all things, is not only the author of those ac- 
tions done by his elect, as actions, but also as 
they are good actions; whereas, on the other 
hand, though he may be said to be the author of 
all the actions done by the wicked, yet he is not 
the author of them in amoral and compound 
sense, as they are sinful : but physically, simply, 
and sensu diviso, as they are mere actions, ab- 
stractedly from all consideration of the goodness 
or badness of them. 

Although there is no action whatever, which is 
not in some sense, either good or bad ; yet we 
easily conceive of an action, purely as such, with- 
out adverting to the quality of it : so that the 
distinction between an action itself and its deno- 
mination of good or evil, is very obvious and 
natural. 

In and by the elect, therefore, God not only 
produces works and actions through his almighty 
power i but likewise through the salutary influ- 



9B 



ences of his Spirit, first makes their persons good, 
and then their actions so too : but, in and by the 
reprobate, he produces actions by his power alone; 
which actions, as neither issuing from faith, nor 
being wrought with a view to the divine glory^ 
nor done in the manner prescribed by the divine 
word, are on these accounts properly denomi- 
nated evih Hence we see that God does not im- 
mediately and per se infuse iniquity into the 
wicked ; but, as Luther expresses it, powerfully 
excites them to action, and withholds those gra- 
cious influences of his Spirit, without which 
every action is necessarily evil. That God, ei- 
ther directly or remotely, excites bad men as well 
as good ones, to action, cannot be denied by any 
but Atheists, or by those who carry their notions 
of free will and human independency so high as 
to exclude the Deity from all actual operation in 
and among his creatures ; which is little short of 
Atheism. Every work performed, whether good 
or evil, is done in the strength and by the power 
derived immediately from God himself, in whom 
all men live, move, and have their being, Acts 
xvii. 28. As, at first, without him was not any 
thing made which was made ; so now, without 
him is not any thing done which is done. We 
have no power or faculty, whether corporeal or 
intellectual, but what we received from God, sub- 
sists by him, and is exercised in subserviency to 
his will and appointment. It is he who created, 
preserves, actuates, and directs all things. But 
it by no means follows from these premises, that 
God is therefore the cause of sin ; for sin is no- 
thing but xvojm*^ illegality, want of conformity to 
the divine law, 1 John iii. 4. a mere privation of 
rectitude ; consequently, being itself a thing pure- 
ly negative, it can have no positive or efficient 
cause, but only a negative and deficient one : as 
several learned men have observed* 



96 

Every action, as such, is undoubtedly good ; it 
being an actual exertion of those operative pow- 
ers given us by God for that very end : God 
therefore may be the author of all actions, (as he 
undoubtedly is) and yet not be the author of evil. 
An action is constituted evil three ways ; by pro- 
ceeding from a wrong principle, by being direct- 
ed to a wrong end, and by being done in a wrong 
manner. Now, though God, as we have said, is 
the efficient cause of our actions, as actions ; yet, 
if these actions commence sinful, that sinfulness 
arises from ourselves. Suppose a boy, who 
knows not how to writef has his hand guided by 
his master, and nevertheless makes false letters, 
quite unlike the copy set him ; though his pre- 
ceptor, who guides his hand, is the cause of his 
writing at all, yet his own ignorance and unskil- 
fulness are the cause of his writing so badly. 
Just so, God is the supreme author of our action, 
abstractedly taken ; but our own vitiosity is the 
cause of our acting amiss. 

I shall conclude this article with two or three 
observations. And, (1.) I would infer, that if 
we would maintain the doctrine of God's omni- 
potence, we must insist upon that of his univer- 
sal agency : the latter cannot be denied, without 
giving up the former. Disprove that he is al- 
mighty, and then we will grant that his influence 
and operations are limited and circumscribed. 
Luther says,^ " God would not be a respectable 
being if he were not almighty, and the doer of all 
things that are done ; or if any thing could come 
to pass in which he had no hand/' God has, at 
least a physical influence on whatsoever is done 
by his creatures, whether trivial or important, 
good or evil. Judas as truly lived, moved, and 



* De Serv, Arb. c> 160. 



97 

had his being from God, as Peter ; and Satati 
himself, as much as Gabriel : for, to say that sin 
exempts the sinner from the divine government 
and jurisdiction, is abridging the power of God 
with a witness ; nay, is razing it from its very 
foundations. 

(2.) This doctrine of God's omnipotence has a 
native tendency to awaken in our hearts that re- 
verence for, and fear of the divine Majesty, 
which none can either receive or retain, but those 
who believe him to be infinitely powerful, and to 
work all things after the counsel of his own will. 
This godly fear is a sovereign antidote against sin ; 
for if I really believe that God, by his unintermit- 
ted operation upon my soul, produces actions in 
me, which, being simply good, receive their malig- 
nancy from the corruption of my nature (and 
even those works that stand opposed to sins, are, 
more or less, infected with this moral leprosy ;) 
and if I consider that, should I yield myself a 
slave to actual iniquity, God can, and justly 
might, as he has frequently done by others, give 
me up to a reprobate mind, and punish one sin, 
by leaving me to the commission of another ; 
surely, such reflections as these must fill me with 
awful apprehensions of the divine purity, power 
and greatness, and make me watch continually, 
as well against the inward risings, as the outward 
appearance of evil. 

(3.) This doctrine is also useful, as it tends to 
inspire us with true humility of soul, and to lay 
us, as impotent dust and ashes, at the feet of 
sovereign omnipotence. It teaches us, what too 
many are fatally ignorant of, the blessed lesson of 
self-despair ; i. e. that, in a state of unregenera- 
cy, our wisdom is folly, our strength weakness, 
and our righteousness nothing worth : that, there^ 
fore, we can do nothing either to the glory of 



98 

God, or the spiritual benefit of ourselves, ancf 
others, but through the ability which he giveth '; 
that in him our strength lieth, and from him all 
our help must come. Supposing we believe, that, 
whatsoever is done below or above, God doeth 
it himself; that all things depend, both as to their 
being and operation, upon his omnipotent arm 
and mighty support; that we cannot even sm, 
much less do any good thing, if he withdraw his 
aid ; and that all men are in his hand, as clay in 
the hand of the potter ; I say, did we really be- 
lieve all these points, and see them in the light 
of the divine Spirit, how can it be reasonably 
supposed that we could wax insolent against this 
great God, behave contemptuously and supercili- 
ously in the world, or boast of any thing we 
have or do ? Lather informs us,^ that he u used 
frequently to be much offended at this doctrine, 
because it drove him to s elf- despair ; but that he 
afterwards found, that this sort of despair was 
salutary and profitable, and near akin to divine 
grace. " 

(4.) We are hereby taught not only humility 
before God, but likewise dependence on him, and 
resignation to him. For, if we are thoroughly 
persuaded that, of ourselves, and in our own 
strength, we cannot either do good or evil ; but 
that, being originally created by God, we are in- 
cessantly supported, moved, influenced, and di- 
rected by him, this way or that, as he pleases ; 
the natural inference from hence will be, that, 
with simple faith, we cast ourselves, entirely, as 
on the bosom of his Providence ; commit all our 
care and solicitude to his hand ; praying, with- 
out hesitation or reserve, that his will may be 



* De Serv. Arb. c. 161, 



99 



done in us, on us, and by us ; and that, in all his 
dealings with us, he may consult his own glory 
alone. This holy passiveness is the very apex of 
Christianity. All the desires of our great Re- 
deemer himself were reducible to these two ; 
that the will of God might be done, and that the 
glory of God might be displayed. These were the 
highest and supreme marks at which he aimed, 
throughout the whole course of his spotless life, 
and inconceivably tremendous sufferings. Hap- 
py, thrice happy that man, who hath thus far at- 
tained the mind that was in Christ ! 

(5.) The comfortable belief of this doctrine 
has a tendency to excite and keep alive within us 
that fortitude, which is so ornamental to, and ne- 
cessary for us, while we abide in this wilderness. 
For, if 1 believe with the Apostle, that all things 
are of God, 2, Cor* v. 18. I shall be less liable 
to perturbation when afflicted, and learn more 
easily to possess my soul in patience. This was 
Job's support : he was not overcome with rage 
and despair, when he received news that the Sa- 
beans had carried off his cattle, and slain his ser- 
vants, and that the remainder of both were con- 
sumed with fire ; that the Chaldeans had robbed 
him of his camels ; and that his seven sons were 
crushed to death, by the falling of the house 
where they were sitting : he resolved all these 
misfortunes into the agency of God, his power 
and sovereignty, and even thanked him for doing 
what he would with his own, Job i. 21. If ano- 
ther should slander me in word, or injure me in 
deed, I shall not be prone to anger, when, with 
David, I consider that the Lord hath bidden 
him, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. 

(6.) This should stir us up to fervent and in- 
cessant prayer. For, does God work powerfully 
and benignly in the hearts of his elect? and is 



100 

lie the sole cause of every action they do, which 
is truly and spiritually good ? Then it should be 
our prayer, that he would work in us likewise 
both to will and to do, of his good pleasure : 
and if, on self-examination, we find reason to 
trust, that some good thing is wrought in us ; it 
should put us upon thankfulness unfeigned, and 
cause us to glory, not in ourselves but in him. 
On the other hand, does God manifest his displea- 
surc^iyunst the wicked, by blinding, hardening, 
and giving them up to perpetrate iniquity with 
greediness ? which judicial acts of God, are both 
a punishment for their sin : and also eventual ad* 
ditions to it : we should be the more incited to 
deprecate these tremendous evils, and to beseech 
the King of heaven, that he would not thus lead 
us into temptation. So much concerning the 
omnipotence of God. I shall now, 

V. Take notice of his Justice. 

Pos. 1. God is infinitely, absolutely, and un- 
changeably just. 

The justice of God may be considered either 
immanently, as it is in himself, which is, proper- 
ly speaking, the same with his holiness ; or tran- 
siently and relatively, as it respects his right con* 
duct towards his creatures, which is properly 
justice. By the former he is all that is holy, 
just, and good ; by the latter, he is manifested to 
be so, in all his dealings with angels and men. 
For the first, see Deut. xxxii. 4. Ps. xcii. 15. 
for the second, -'ob viii. 3. Ps. cxlv. 17. Hence 
it follows, that whatever God either wills or does, 
however it may, at first sight, seem to clash with 
our ideas of right and wrong, cannot really be 
unjust. It is certain, that, for a season, he sore- 
ly afflicted his righteous servant Job ; and, on 
the other hand enriched the Sabeans, an infidel 
and lawless nation, with a profusion of wealth 



101 

and a series of success ; before Jacob and Esau 
were born, or had none either good or evil, he 
loved and chose the former, and reprobated the 
latter : He gave repentance to Peter, and left Ju- 
das to perish in his sin : and, as in all ages, so, to 
this day, he hath mercy on whom he will, and 
whom he will he hardeneth. In all which, he 
acts most justly and righteously, and there is no 
iniquity with him. 

Pos. 2. The Deity may be considered in a 
threefold view : as God of all, as Lord of all, 
and as Judge of all. 

1. As God of all, he created, sustains, and 
exhilerates the whole universe : causes his sun to 
shine, and his rain to fall upon the evil and the 
good, Mat. v- and is S^r^ Tafiai uvQgaTr&tv, the pre~ 
server of all men, 1 Tim. iv. 10. For, as he is 
infinitely and supremely good, so also is he com* 
municative of his goodness ; as appears not only 
from his creation of all things, but especially 
from his providential benignity. Every thing 
has its being from him, as Creator ; and its well- 
being from him, as a bountiful Preserver. 2* 
As Lord, or sovereign of all, he does as he will 
(and has a most unquestionable right to do so) 
with his own ; and, in particular, fixes and deter- 
mines the everlasting state of every individual 
person, as he sees fit. It is essential to absolute 
sovereignty, that the sovereign have it in his 
power to dispose of those, over whom his juris- 
diction extends, just as he pleases, without being 
accountable to any : And God, whose authority 
is unbounded, none being exempt from it ; may, 
with the strictest holiness and justice, love or 
hate, elect or reprobate, save or destroy any of 
his creatures, whether human or angelic, accord- 
ing to his own free pleasure and sovereign pur- 
pose. 3. As Judge of all, he ratifies what he 
9 



102 

does as Lord, by rendering to all according to 
their works ; by punishing the wicked, and re- 
warding those whom it was his will to esteem 
righteous and to make holy, 

Pqs. 3. Whatever things God wills or does, are 
not willed and done by him because they were, 
in their own nature, and previously to his willing 
them, just and right : or because, from their in- 
trinsic fitness, he ought to will and to do them : 
but they are therefore just, right and proper, be- 
cause he, who is holiness itself wills and does 
them. 

Hence Abraham looked upon it as a righteous 
action to slay his innocent son. Why did he so 
esteem it, because the law of God authorized 
murder ? No ; for, on the contrary, both the law 
of od and the law of nature peremptorily for- 
bad it : but the holy patriarch well knew, that the 
will of God is the only rule of justice , and that 
what he pleases to command is, on that very ac- 
count just and righteous.^ It follows, 

Pqs. 4. That although our works are to be ex- 
amined by the revealed will of God, and be de- 
nominated materially good or evil, as they agree 
or disagree with it ; yet, the works of God him- 
self cannot be brought to any test whatever : for, 
his will being the grand, universal law, he him- 
self cannot be, properly speaking, subject to, or 
obliged by, any law superior to that. Many 
things are done by him, such as chusing and re- 
probating men, without any respect had to their 
works; suffering people to fall into sin, when, if 
it so pleased him he might prevent it; leaving 
many backsliding professors to go on and perish in 
their apostacy, when it is in his divine power to 
' sanctify and set them right ; drawing some by 

* Compare also ExocL iii- 22. with Exod. xx. 15< 



103 

his grace, and permitting many others to continue 
in sin and unregeneracy ; condemning those to 
future misery, whom, if he pleased, he could un- 
doubtedly save ; with innumerable instances of 
the like nature, (which might be mentioned) and 
which, if done by us, would be apparently unjust, 
inasmuch as they would not square with the re- 
vealed will of God, which is the great and only 
safe rule of our practice. But, when he does 
these and such like things, they cannot but be 
holy, equitable, and worthy of himself: for, 
since his will is essentially and unchangeably just, 
whatever he does, in consequence of that will, 
must be just and good likewise. From what has 
been delivered under this fifth head, I would in- 
fer, That they, who deny the power God has of 
doing as he will with his creatures, and exclaim 
against unconditional decrees as cruel, tyranni- 
cal, and unjust; either know not what they say, 
nor whereof they affirm ; or are wilful blasphe- 
mers of his name, and perverse rebels against 
his sovereignty : to which at last, however un- 
willingly, then will be forced to submit. 

I shall conclude this introduction with briefly 
considering in the 

Sixth and last place, the Mercy of God. 

Pos. 1. The Deity is, throughout the scriptures, 
represented as infinitely gracious and merciful, 
Exod. xxxiv. 6. Nehem. ix. IT. Psalm ciii. 8« 
1 Pet. i. 3. 

When we call the divine mercy infinite, we do 
not mean that it is, in a way of grace, extended to 
all men, without exception ; (and supposing it was, 
even then it would be very improperly denomina- 
ted infinite on that account, since the objects of it, 
though all men taken together, would not amount 
to a multitude strictly and properly infinite) but, 
that his mercy towards his own elect, as it -knew 



104 

no beginning, so is it infinite in duration, and 
shall know neither period nor intermission. 

Pqs. 2. Mercy is not in the Deity, as it is in 
us, a passion, or affection ; every thing of that 
kind being incompatible with the purity, perfec- 
tion, independency and unchangeableness of his 
nature : but, when this attribute is predicated of 
him, it only notes his free and eternal will, or 
purpose, of making some of the fallen race happy f 
by delivering them from the guilt and dominion 
of sin, and communicating himself to them in a 
way consistent with his own inviolable justice, 
truth, and holiness. This seems to be the proper 
definition of mercy, as it relates to the spiritual 
and eternal good of those who are its objects. 
But it should be observed, 

Pos. 3. That the mercy of God, taken in its 
more large and indefinite sense, may be consider- 
ed, 1. as general, 2.' as special. 

His general mercy is no other than what we 
commonly call his bounty ; by which he is, more 
or less, providentially good to all mankind, both 
elect and non-elect : Mat. v. 45. Luke vi. 35. 
Acts xiv. 17. and xvii. 25 — 28. By his special 
mercy, he as Lord of all, hath in a spiritual 
sense, compassion on as many of the fallen race 
as are the objects of his free and eternal favour : 
the effects of which special mercy are, the re- 
demption and justification of their persons 
through the satisfaction of Christ ; the effectual 
vocation, regeneration, and sanctification of them, 
by his Spirit; the infallible and final preservation 
of them in a state of grace on earth ; and their 
everlasting glorification in heaven. 

Pos* 4. There is no contradiction, whether 
real or seeming, between these two assertions, 
1. That the blessings of grace and glory are pe- 
culiar to those whom God hath in his decree of 



10S 

predestination, set apart for himself; and 2. 
That the gospel declaration runs, that whosoever 
willeth, may take of the water of life freely, Rev, 
xxii. 17V "Since, in the first place, none can 
will, or unfeignedly and spiritually desire a part 
in these privileges, but those whom God previ- 
ously makes willing and desirous ; and, secondly, 
that, he gives this will to, and excites this desire 
in, none but his own elect. 

Pos. 5. Since ungodly men, who are totally 
and finally destitute of divine grace, cannot know 
what this mercy is, nor form any proper appre- 
hensions of it, much less by faith embrace and 
rely upon it for themselves ; and since daily expe* 
rience, as well as the scriptures of truth, teach 
us that God doth not open the eyes of the repro- 
bate, as he doth the eyes of his elect, nor savingly 
enlighten their understandings ; it evidently fol- 
lows that his mercy was never, from the very 
first, designed for them, neither will it be applied 
to them : but, both in designation and applica- 
tion, is proper and peculiar to those only, who 
are predestinated to life ; as it is written, the 
election hath obtained, and the rest were blinded., 
Rom. xi. 7. 

Pos. 6. The whole work of salvation, together 
with every thing that is in order to it, or stands 
in connexion with it, is sometimes in scripture 
comprised under the single term mercy ; to shew 
that mere love and absolute grace were the grand 
causes why the elect are saved, and that all merits 
worthiness, and good qualifications of theirs were 
entirely excluded from having any influence on. 
the divine will, why they should be chosen, re- 
deemed, and glorified, above others. When it is. 
said, Rom. ix. " He hath mercy on whom he 
will have mercy," it is as much as if the Apostle 
had said, u God elected, ransomed, justified, re- 
9 * 



106 

generates, sanctifies and glorifies whom he plea- 
ses :" every one of these great privileges being 
briefly summed up, and virtually included, in that 
comprehensive phrase, " He hath mercy." 

Pos. 7. It follows, that whatever favour is 
bestowed on us, or wrought by us, whether in 
will, word, or deed ; and whatever blessings 
else we receive from God, from election quite 
home to glorification ; all proceed merely and 
entirely from the good pleasure of his will, and 
his mercy towards us in Christ Jesus. To him f 
therefore, the praise is due, who putteth the dif- 
ference between man and man, by having compas- 
sion on some> and not on others* 



THE 
DOCTRINB 

OF 

ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION 

STATED AND ASSERTED. 

>^-c 

CHAPTER T. 

WHEREIN" THE TERMS COMMONLY MADE USE OF IN 
TREATING OF THIS SUBJECT, ARE DEFINED AND 
EXPLAINED. 

HAVING considered the attributes of God, as 
laid down in scripture ; and, so far, cleared our 
way to the doctrine of predestination ; I shall* 
before I enter further on the subject, explain the 
principal terms generally made use of when treat- 
ing of it, and settle their true meaning. In discour- 
sing on the divine decrees, mention is frequently 
made of God's love and hatred ; of election and 
reprobation; of the divine purpose, foreknow- 
ledge, and predestination ; each of which we shall 
distinctly and briefly consider. 

i. When love is predicated of God, we do not 
mean that he is possessed of it as a passion, or 
affection. In us it is such ; but if, considered in 
that sense, it should be ascribed to the Deity, it 
would be utterly subversive of the simplicity per- 
fection, and independency of his being. Love* 



108 

therefore, when attributed to him, signifies, 1^ 
his eternal benevolence, i. e. his everlasting will, 
purpose, and determination to deliver, bless, and 
save his people. Of this, no good works wrought 
by them are in any sense the cause. Neither are 
even the merits of Christ himself to be consider- 
ed as any way moving or exciting this good will 
of God to his elect; since the gift of Christ to 
be their mediator and redeemer, is itself an ef- 
fect of this free and eternal favour, borne to them 
by God the Father, John iii. 16. " His love to- 
wards them arises merely from the good pleasure 
of his own good will, without the least regard to 
any thing ad extra^ or, out of himself." The 
term implies, 2. complacency, delight, and ap- 
probation. With this love, God cannot love even 
his elect, as considered in themselves ; because 
in that view, they are guilty, polluted sinners ; 
but they were from all eternity objects of it, as 
they stood united to Chriit, and partakera of his 
righteousness. Love implies, 3. actual benefi- 
cence ; which, properly speaking, is nothing else 
than the effect or accomplishment of the other 
two : those are the cause of this. This actual 
beneficence respects all blessings, whether of a 
temporal, spiritual, or eternal nature. Temporal 
good things are indeed indiscriminately bestow- 
ed in a greater or less degree, on all, whether 
elect or reprobate ; but they are given in a cove- 
nant way, and as blessings to the elect only ; to 
whom also the other benefits, respecting grace 
and glory, are peculiar. And this love of bene- 
ficence no less than that of benevolence and 
complacency, is absolutely free, and irrespective 
of any worthiness in man. 

II. When hatred is ascribed to God, it im- 
plies, 1. a negation of benevolence; or, a reso- 
lution not to have mercy on such and such men. 



109 

nor to endue them with any of those graces 
which stand connected with eternal life. So f 
Rom. ix. " Esau have I hated, i. e. I did 
from all eternity, determine within myself, not to 
have mercy on him." The sole cause of which 
awful negation is not merely the unworthiness of 
the persons hated, but the sovereignty and free- 
dom of the divine will. 2. It denotes displea- 
sure and dislike : for sinners who are not interest- 
ed in Christ, cannot but be infinitely displeasing 
to, and loathsome in the sight of eternal purity, 
3. It signifies a positive will to punish and 
destroy the reprobate for their sins ; of which 
will the infliction of misery upon them hereaf- 
ter, is but the necessary effect, and actual execu- 
tion. 

III. The term election, that so very frequent- 
ly occurs in scripture, is there taken in a fourfold 
sense ; 1. and most commonly signifies, u That 
eternal, sovereign, unconditional, particular, and 
immutable act of God, where he selected some 
from among all mankind, and of every nation un- 
der heaven, to be redeemed and everlastingly 
saved by Christ." 2. It sometimes and more 
rarely signifies, " That gracious and almighty act 
of the divine Spirit, whereby God actually and 
visibly separates his elect from the world, by ef- 
fectual calling." This is nothing but the mani- 
festation and partial fulfilment of the former elec- 
tion ; and by it, the objects of predestinating 
grace are sensibly led unto the communion of 
saints, and visibly added to the number of God's 
declared, professing people. Of this our Lord 
makes mention, John xv. 19. " Because I have 
chosen you out of the world, therefore the 
world hateth you." Where, it should seem, the 
choice spoken of, does not refer so much to 
God's eternal immanent act of election, as his 



IK) 

©pen, manifest one ; whereby he powerfully and 
efficaciously called the disciples forth from the 
world of the unconverted, and quickened them 
from above, in conversion. 3. By election is 
sometimes meant, " God's taking a whole nation, 
community, or body of men, into external cove- 
nant with himself, by giving them the advantage 
of revelation, or his written word, as the rule of 
their belief and practice, when other nations are 
without it." In this sense, the whole body of 
the Jewish nation was indiscriminately called 
elect, Deut. vii. 6. " because that unto them were 
committed the oracles of God. Now, all that are 
thus elected are not therefore necessarily saved ; 
but many of them may be, and are, reprobates : 
as those of whom our Lord says, Mat. x- Hi. 20. 
ct that they hear the word and anon with joy 
receive it, &o" And the apostle John, 1 Epist. 
chap. ii. " They went out from us, i. e* being fa- 
voured with the same gospel revelation we were, 
they professed themselves true believers no less 
than we ; but they were not of us, i. e. they were 
not with us chosen of God unto everlasting life, 
nor did they ever in reality, possess that faith of 
his operation, which he gave to us ; for, if they 
had in this sense, been of us, they would no doubt 
have continued with us ; they would have mani- 
fested the sincerity of their professions, and 
the truth of their conversion bv enduring to the 
end, and being saved." And even this external 
revelation, though it is not necessarily connected 
with eternal happiness, is nevertheless productive 
of very many and great advantages to the people 
and places where it is vouchsafed ; and is made 
known to some nations, and kept back* from 



See Psalm cxlvii. 19, 2Q, 



Ill 

ethers, according to the good pleasure of him 2 
who worketh all thing after the counsel of his 
own will. 4. And lastly, election sometimes 
signifies, u The temporary designation of some 
person or persons, to the filling up some particu- 
lar station in the visible church, or office in civil 
life." So Judas was chosen to the apostleship, 
John vi. 70. and Saul to be king of Israel, 1 Sam. 
x. 24. " This much for the use of the word 
election." On the contrary, 

IV. Reprobation denotes either, 1. God's 
eternal pretention of some men, when he chose 
others to glory, and his predestination of them to 
£11 up the measure of their iniquities, and then to 
receive the just punishment of their crimes, even 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of his power. This is the prima- 
ry, most obvious, and most frequent sense, in 
which the word is used. It may likewi e signify, 
% God's forbearing to call by his grace, those 
whom he hath thus ordained to condemnation : 
but this is only a temporary pretention, and a 
consequence of that which was from eternity. 
3. And lastly, the word may be taken in ano- 
ther sense, as denoting God's refusal to grant to 
some nations the light of the gospel revelation. 
This may be considered as a kind of national re- 
probation ; which yet does not imply that every 
individual person, who lives in such a country, 
must therefore unavoidably perish for ever ; any 
more than that every individual, who lives in a 
land called Christian, is therefore in a state of sal- 
vation. There are no doubt, elect persons among 
the former ; as well as reprobate ones among the 
latter. By a very little attention to the context, 
any reader may easily discover in which of these 
several senses the words elect and reprobate are 
used, whenever they occur in scripture. 



112 

V. Mention is frequently made, in scripture., 
of the purpose* of God : which is no other than 
his gracious intention from eternity of making 
his elect everlastingly happy in Christ. 

VI. When foreknowledge is ascribed to God, 
the word imports, 1. that general prescience, 
whereby he knew from all eternity, both what he 
himself would do, and what his creatures, in con- 
sequence of his efficacious and permissive de- 
cree, should do likewise. The divine foreknow- 
ledge considered in this view, is absolutely uni- 
versal ; it extends to all beings that did, do, or 
ever shall exist ; and to all actions that ever have 
been, that are, or shall be done, whether good or 



* The purpose of God does not seem to differ at all from 
predestination: that being as well as this, an eternal, f-ee, 
and unchangeable act of his will. Besides, the word pin pose, 
when predicated of God in the New Testament, always de- 
notes his design of saving his elect, and that only, Rum. viii. 
28. Sc ix. 11. Eph. i. 11. & iii. 11. 2 Tim. i. 9. As does the 
term predestination ; which, throughout the whole New Tes- 
tament, never signifies the appointment of the non-elect to 
wrath ; but singly and solely the fore-appointment of the elect 
to grace and glory : though, in common theological writings, 
predestination is spoken of as extending to whatever God 
does, both in a way of permission and efficiency; as in the 
utmost sense of the term it does. It is worthy of the read- 
er's notice, that the original word x-gofons, which we render 
purpose, signifies not only an appointment, but a fore-appoint- 
ment, and such a fore-appointment as is efficacious, and can- 
not be obstructed, but shall most assuredly issue in a lull 
accomplishment: which gave occasion to the following judi- 
cious remark of a late learned writer; "7rgofa(r>$ a Paulo 
ssepe usurpatur in electionis negotio, ad designandum, consili- 
um hoc Dei non esse inanem quandam &. inefficacem vellei- 
tatem ; sed constans, determinatum, et immutabile Dei pro- 
positum. Vox enim est efficacias summse, ut notant gram- 
matici veteres ; et signate vocatur a Paulo, apofcrts ttx to, 
TTccXJj t eveg'/xvl(&> ) consilium illius, qui efficaciter omnia 
operatur ex beneplacito sue." Turretik. Institut. Tom, 
1. loc. 4. quae st. f. s* 12, 



113 

evil, natural, civil, or moral. 2. The word of* 
ten denotes that special prescience which has for 
its objects his own elect, and them alone ; whom 
he is in a peculiar sense said to know and fore- 
know, Psal. i. 6. John x. 27. 2 Tim. iu 19. Rom. 
viii. 29. 1 Pet. i. 2. and this knowledge is con- 
nected with, or rather the same with love, favour, 
and approbation. 

VII. We come now to consider the meaning 
of the word predestination, and how it is taken in 
scripture. The verb predestinate is of Latin 
original, and signifies in that tongue, to delibe- 
rate beforehand with one's self, how one shall 
act : and in consequence of such deliberation, to 
constitute, foreordain, and predetermine, where* 
when, how, and by whom, any thing shall be 
done, and when it shall be done. So the Greek 
verb Trpoo^t^a, which exactly answers to the Eng- 
lish word predestinate, and is rendered by it, sig- 
nifies, to resolve beforehand within one's self 
what to do, and before the thing resolved on is 
actually effected, to appoint it to some certain use, 
and direct it to some determinate end. The He- 
brew verb habhdel, has likewise much the same 
signification. 

Now, none but wise men are capable (especial- 
ly in matters of great importance) of rightly de- 
termining what to do, and how to accomplish a 
proper end, by just, suitable, and effectual means : 
and if this is confessedly a very material part of 
true wisdom, who so fit to dispose of men, and 
assign each individual his sphere of action in this 
world, and his place in the world to come, as the 
all-wise God ? and yet, alas ! how many are there 
who cavil at those eternal decrees, which, were 
we capable of fully and clearly understanding 
them, would appear to be as just as they are so- 
vereign, and as wise as they are incomprehensi- 
10 



114 

ble ! Divine preordination has for its objects, all 
things that are created : no creature, whether ra- 
tional or irrational, animate or inanimate, is ex- 
empted from its influence. All beings whatever, 
from the highest angel to the meanest reptile, and 
irom the meanest reptile to the minutest atom, 
are the objects of God's eternal decrees and par- 
ticular providence. However the ancient fathers 
only make use of the word predestination as it re- 
fers to angels or men, whether good or evil : and 
it is used by the apostle Paul in a more limited 
sense still ; so as by it to mean only that branch of 
it which respects God's election and designation of 
his people/to eternal life, Rom. viii. 30. Eph. i. 11. 
But that we may more justly apprehend the 
import of this word, and the ideas intended to be 
conveyed by it, it may be proper to observe, that 
the term predestination, theologically taken, ad- 
mits of a fourfold definition : and may be consi- 
dered as, 1. " That eternal, most wise, and im- 
mutable decree of God, whereby he did, from 
before all time determine and ordain to create, 
dispose of, and direct to some particular end, 
every person and thing to which he has given, or 
is yet to give, being ; and to make the whole cre- 
ation subservient to, and declarative of, his own 
glory." Of this decree, actual providence is the 
execution. 2. Predestination may be consider- 
ed as relating generally to mankind, and them 
only : and, in this view, we define it to be, u The 
everlasting, sovereign, and invariable purpose of 
God, whereby he did determine within himself, 
to create Adam in his own image and likeness, 
and then to permit his fall ; and to suffer him, 
thereby to plunge himself, and his whole posteri- 
ty," (inasmuch as they all sinned in him, not on- 
ly virtually but also federally and representative- 
ly) " into the dreadful abyss of sin, misery and 



115 

death/ 5 3. Consider predestination as relating to 
the elect only, and it is, " That eternal, uncondi- 
tional, particular, and irreversible act of the di- 
vine will, whereby, in matchless love, and adora- 
ble sovereignty, God determined within himself 
to deliver a certain number of Adam's degene- 
rate^ offspring, out of that sinful and miserable 
estate, into which, by his primitive transgression, 
they were to fall:" and in which sad condition 
they were equally involved with those who were 
not chosen : but, being pitched upon, and sin- 
gled out by God the Father, to be vessels of 
grace and salvation (not for any thing in them, 
that could recommend them to his favour, or enti- 
tle them to his notice, but merely because he 
would shew himself gracious to them,) they were 
in time actually redeemed by Christ : are effec- 
tually called by his spirit, justified, adopted, 
sanctified, and preserved safe to his heavenly 
kingdom. The supreme end of this decree is 
the manifestation of his own infinitely glorious 
and amiably tremendous perfections : the inferior, 
or subordinate end, is the happiness and salvation 
of them who are thus freely elected. 4. Predes- 
tination, as it regards the reprobate is, " That eter- 
nal, most holy, sovereign, and immutable act of 



* When we say, that the decree of predestination to life 
and death respects man as fallen, we do not mean, that the 
fall was actually antecedent to that decree : for the decree 
is truly and properly eternal, as all God's immanent acts un- 
doubtedly are ; whereas the fall took place in time. What 
we intend, then, is only this, viz. that God, (for reasons, 
without doubt, worthy of himself, and of which we are, by 
no means, in this life competent judges) having 1 , from ever- 
lasting-, preremptorily ordained to suffer the fall of Adam ; 
did likewise, from everlasting*, consider the human race as 
fallen: and, out of the whole mass of mankind, thus viewed 



116 

God's will, whereby he hath determined tb leave 
some men to perish in their sins, and to be justly- 
punished for them." 



and foreknown as impure, and obnoxious to condemnation, 
vouchsafed to select some particular persons, (who, collec- 
tively, make up a very great, though precisely determinate,, 
number) in and on whom he would make known the inefia> 
ble riches of his mercy. 



CHAPTER II. 



WHEREIN THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION 
IS EXPLAINED, AS IT RELATES IN GENERAL 
TO ALL MEN. 

THUS much being premised, with relation to 
the scripture terms commonly made use of in 
this controversy, we shall now proceed to take a 
nearer view of this high and mysterious article, 
And, 
I. We, with the scriptures, assert, That there 
is a predestination of some particular persons to 
life, for the praise of the glory of divine grace ; 
and a predestination of other particular persons 
to death : which death of punishment they shall 
inevitably undergo, and that justly, on account 
of their sins. 1. There is a predestination of 
some particular persons to life. So, Mat. xx. 15. 
" Many are called but few chosen ;" i. e. the gos- 
pel revelation comes indiscriminately to great, 
multitudes ; but few, comparatively speaking, are 
spiritually and eternally the better for it : and 
these few, to whom it is the savour of life unto 
life, are therefore savingly benefited by it, be- 
cause they are the chosen or elect of God. To 
the same effect are the following passages, among 
many others: Mat* xxiv. 22. " For the elect's 
sake, those days shall be shortened." Acts xiik 
48. " As many as were ordained to eternal life 
believed." Rom, viii. 30. u Whom he did pre- 
10 * 



118 

destinate, them he also called." And verse 33. 
" Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's 
elect ?" Eph. i. 4, 5. " According as he hath 
chosen us in him, before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy, &c. Having pre- 
destinated us to the adoption of children by Je- 
sus Christ unto himself, according to the good 
pleasure of his will." 2 Tim. i. 9. " Who hath 
saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not 
according to our works, but according to his 
own purpose and grace, which was given us in 
Christ before the world began." 2. This elec- 
tion of certain individuals unto eternal life was 
for the praise of the glory of divine grace. This 
is expressly asserted in so many words, by the 
apostle, Eph. i. 5, 6. Grace, or mere favour, 
was the impulsive cause of all : It was the main 
spring, which set all the inferior wheels in motion. 
It was an act of grace in God, to choose any, 
when he might have passed by all : It was an act 
of sovereign grace, to choose this man rather than 
that, when both were equally undone in themselves, 
and alike obnoxious to his displeasure. In a word, 
since election is not of works, and does not pro- 
ceed on the least regard had to any worthiness in its 
objects ; it must be of free, unbiassed grace : but 
election is not of works, Rom. xi. 5, 6. therefore, 
it is solely of grace. 3. There is, on the other 
hand, a predestination of some particular persons 
to death. 2 Cor. iv. 3. " If our gospel be hid, it 
is hid to them that are lost." 1 Pet. ii. 8. 
" Who stumble at the word, being disobedient ; 
whereunto also they were appointed." 2 Pet. ii. 
12. " These, as natural brute beasts, made to be 
taken and destroyed." Jude ver. 4. " There are 
certain men crept in unawares, who were before 
of old ordained to this condemnation." Rev. 
xvii. 8. " Whose names were not written in fche book 



119 

o£ life from the foundation of the world." But 
of this we shall treat professedly, and more at 
large, in the fifth chapter. 4. This future death 
they shall inevitably undergo : for, as God will 
certainly save all whom he wills should be sav- 
ed r so he will as surely condemn all whom he 
wills shall be condemned ; for he is the Judge of 
the whole earth, whose decree shall stand, and 
from whose sentence there is no appeal. " Hath 
he said, and shall he not make it good ? hath he 
spoken, and shall it not come to pass ?" And 
his decree is this ; that these, i. e. the non-elect, 
who are left under the guilt of final impenitence, 
unbelief, and sin, shall go away into everlasting 
punishment ; and the righteous, i. e. those who, 
in consequence of their election in Christ, and 
union to him, are justly reputed, and really con- 
stituted such, shall enter into life eternal, Mat. 
xxv. 46. 5. The reprobate shall undergo this pun- 
ishment justly, and on account of their sins. Sin 
is the meritorious and immediate cause of any 
man's damnation. God condemns and punishes 
the non-elect, not merely as men, but as sinners : 
and, had it pleased the great Governor of the uni- 
verse, to have entirely prevented sin from having 
any entrance into the world, it should seem as if 
he could not, consistently with his known attri- 
butes, have condemned any man at all. But, as 
all sin is properly meritorious of eternal death ; 
and all men are sinners ; they, who are condemn- 
ed, are condemned most justly, and those who 
are saved, are saved in a way of sovereign mer- 
cy, through the vicarious obedience and death of 
Christ for them. 

Now, this twofold predestination, of some ta 
life, and of others to death, (if it may be called 
twofold, both being constituent parts of the same 
decree) cannot be denied, without likewise deny- 



120 

ing, 1. most express and frequent declarations 
of scripture, and, 2. the very existence of God : 
for, since God is a being perfectly simple, free 
from all accident and composition ; and yet, a 
will to save some and punish others, is very often 
predicated of him in scripture ; and an immove- 
able decree to do this in consequeuce of his will, 
is likewise ascribed to him ; and a perfect fore- 
knowledge, of the sure and certain accomplish- 
ment of what he has thus willed and decreed, is 
also attributed to him ; it follows, that whoever 
denies this will, decree, and foreknowledge of 
God, does implicitly and virtually deny God 
himself : since his will, decree, and foreknow- 
ledge are no other than God himself willing, and 
decreeing, and foreknowing. 

II. We assert, that God did from eternity de- 
cree to make man in his own image ; and also 
decreed to suffer him to fall from that image in 
which he should be created, and, thereby to for- 
feit the happiness with which he was invested : 
which decree, and the consequences of it, were 
not limited to Adam only ; but included, and ex- 
tended to all his natural posterity. 

Something of this was hinted already in the 
preceding chapter : we shall now proceed to the 
proof of it. And, 1. That God did make man 
in his own image, is evident from scripture, Gen. 
i. 27. 2. That he decreed from eternity so to 
make man, is as evident ; since, for God to do any 
thing without having decreed it, or fixed a pre- 
vious plan in his own mind, would be a manifest 
imputation on his wisdom : and, if he decreed 
that now, or at any time, which he did not 
always decree, he could not be unchangeable. 
3. That man actualy did fall from the divine im- 
age and his original happiness, is the undoubted 
voice of scripture, Gen. iii. And, 4. That li€ 



121 

fell in consequence of the divine decree,^ we 
prove thus : God was either willing that Adam 
should fall, or unwilling, or indifferent about it. 
If God was unwilling that Adam should trans- 
gress, how came it pass that he did? Is man 
stronger, and is Satan wiser, than he that made 
them ? Surely, no. Again ; could not God, had 
it so pleased him, have hindered the tempter's 
access to paradise ? or have created man, as he 
did the elect angels, with a will invariably deter- 
mined to good only, and incapable of being bias- 
ed to evil ? or, at least, have made the grace and 
strength, with which he indued Adam, actually 
effectual to the resisting of all solicitations 10 sin ? 
None but atheists would answer these questions 
in the negative. Surely, if God had not willed 
the fall, he could, and no doubt would, have pre- 
vented it : but he did not prevent it : Ergo, he 
willed it. And, if he willed it, he certainly de- 
creed it : for the decree of God is nothing else 
but the seal and ratification of his will. He does 
nothing but what he decreed ; and he decreed 
nothing which he did not will : and both will and 
decree are absolutely eternal, though the execu- 
tion of both be in time. The only way to evade 
the force of this reasoning, is to say, that " God 
was indifferent and unconcerned, whether man 
stood or fell." But in what a shameful, unwor- 
thy light does this represent the Deity ! Is it pos- 
sible for us to imagine, that God could be an idle, 
careless spectator, of one of the most important 
events that ever came to pass ? Are not u the very 
hairs of our head all numbered ?" or does 
" a sparrow fall to the ground, without our hea- 



* See this article judiciously stated, and nervously assort- 
ed by Witsius, in his Econ. 1. 1. cap. 8. s. 10 — 25. 



122 

venly Father ?" If then things, the most trival 
and worthless, are subject to the appointment of 
his decree, and the control of his providence ; how 
much more is man, the master-piece of this low- 
er creation ? and above all, that man Adam, who, 
when recent from his Maker's hands, was the 
living image of God himfelf, and very little infe- 
rior to angels ! and on whose perseverance was 
suspended the welfare, not of himself only, but 
likewise that of the whole world. But, so far 
was God from being indifferent in this matter, 
that there is nothing whatever, about which he is 
so ; for he worketh all things without exception, 
after the counsel of his own will, Eph. i. 11. con- 
sequently, if he positively wills whatever is done, 
he cannot be indifferent with regard to any thing. 
On the whole, if God was not unwilling that Adam 
should fall, he must have been willing that he 
should ; since, between God's willing and nilling, 
there is no medium. And is it not highly rational, 
as well as scriptural ; nay, is it not absolutely ne- 
cessary, to suppose, that the fall was not contrary 
to the will and determination of God ? since, if it 
was, his will (which the apostle represents as be- 
ing irresistible, Rom. ix. 19.) was apparently 
frustrated, and his determination rendered of 
worse than none effect. And how dishonourable to, 
how inconsistent with, and how notoriously sub- 
versive of, the dignity of God, such a blasphemous 
supposition would be, and how irreconcileable with 
every one of his allowed attributes, is very easy to 
observe. 5~ That man, by his fall, forfeited the hap- 
piness with which he was invested, is evident, as 
well from scripture as from experience ; Gen. iii. 
r, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24. Rom. v. 12. Gal. 
iii. 10. He first sinned, (and the essence of sin 
lies in disobedience to the command of God) and 
then immediately became miserable ; misery be- 



123 

ing, through the divine appointment, the natural 
and inseparable concomitant of sin. 6. That the 
fall, and its sad consequences, did not terminate 
solely in Adam, but affect his whole posterity, is 
the doctrine ( of the sacred oracles : Ps. li. 5. 
Rom. v. 12, 14, 15, If, 18, 19. 1 Cor. xv. 22. 
Eph. ii. 3. Besides, not only spiritual and eter- 
nal, but likewise temporal death is the wages of 
sin, Rom. vi. 23. James i. 15. And yet we see 
that millions of infants, who never, in their own 
persons, either did or could commit sin, die con* 
tinually. It follows, that either God must be un- 
just in punishing the innocent; or that these in- 
fants are, some way or other, guilty creatures : if 
they are not so in themselves, (I mean actually 
so, by their own commission of sin) they must 
be so in some other person ; and who that person 
is, let scripture say, Rom. v. 12, 18. 1 Cor. xv. 
22. And, I ask, how can these be, with equity, 
sharers in Adam's punishment, unless they are 
chargeable with his sin? and how can they be 
fairly chargeable with his sin, unless he was their 
federal head and representative, and acted in their 
name, and sustained their persons when he fell ? 
III. We assert, that as all men, universally^ 
are not elected to salvation ; so neither are all 
men, universally, ordained to condemnation. 
This follows from what has been proved already : 
however, I shall subjoin some farther demonstra- 
tion of these two positions. 1. All men universal- 
ly are not elected to salvation. And, first, this 
may be evinced a posteriori : it is undeniable, 
from scripture, that God will not in the last day, 
save every individual of mankind, Dan. xii. 2. 
Mat. xxv. 46. John v. 29. Therefore, say we, 
God never designed to save every individual; 
since, if he had, every individual would and must 
foe saved, for " his counsel shall stand, and he 



124 

will do all his pleasure." See what we have al- 
ready advanced on this head, in the first chapter, 
under the second article, Position 8. Secondly, 
this may be evinced also from God's foreknow- 
ledge. The Deity, from all eternity, and conse- 
quently, at the very time he gives life and being 
to a reprobate, certainly foreknew, and knows, in 
consequence of his own decree, that such an one 
would fall short of salvation : now, if God fore- 
knew this, he must have predetermined it ; be- 
cause his own will is the foundation of hrs de- 
crees, and his decrees are the foundation of his 
prescience ; he therefore foreknowing futurities, 
because, by his predestination, he hath rendered 
their futurition certain and inevitable. Neither 
is it possible, in the very nature of the thing, 
that they should be elected to salvation, or ever 
obtain it, whom God foreknew should perish : 
for then the divine act of pretention would be 
changeable, wavering and precarious ; the divine 
foreknowledge would be deceived ; and the di- 
vine will impeded. All which are utterly im- 
possible. Lastly, That all men are not chosen 
to life, nor created to that end, is evident, in that 
there are some who were hated of God before 
they were born, Rom. ix. 11, 12, 13. are fitted 
for destruction, verse 22. and made for the day 
of evil, Prov. xvi. 4. 

But, 2. All men universally are not ordained 
to condemnation. There are some who are cho- 
sen, Mat. xx. 16. An election, or elect number, 
who obtain grace and salvation, while the rest are 
blinded, Rom. xi. 7. a little flock, to whom it is 
the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom, 
Luke xii. 21. A people whom the Lord hath 
reserved, Jer. 1. 20. and formed for himself, Isai. 
xliii. 21. A peculiarly favoured race, to whom it 
is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom 



125 

©f heaven ; while, to others, it is not given 5 
Mat. xiii. 11. A remnant according to the election 
of grace, Rom. xi. 15. Whom God hath not ap- 
pointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Je- 
sus Christ, 1 Thess. v. 9. In a word, who are a 
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy na- 
tion, a peculiar people, that they should shew 
forth the praises of him who hath called them 
out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. 
ii. 9. And whose names, for that very end, are 
in the book of life, Phil. iv. 3. and written in 
heaven, Luke x. 20. Heb. xii. 23. Luther'^ 
observes, that in the 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters 
of the epistle to the Romans, the apostle particu- 
larly insists on the doctrine of predestination £ 
a Because," says he, " all things whatever, 
arise from, and depend upon, the divine appoint- 
ment ; whereby it was preordained who should 
receive the word of life, and who should disbe- 
lieve itj who should be delivered from their 
sins, and who should be hardened in them ; and 
who should be justified, and who condemned." 

IV. We assert, that the number of the elect, 
and also of the reprobate, is so fixed and deter- 
mined, that neither can be augmented or dimi- 
nished- 
It is written of God, that he telleth the num- 
ber of the stars, and calleth them all by their 
names, Psalm olvii. 4. Now it is as incompa- 
tible with the infinite wisdom and knowledge of 
the all-comprehending God, to be ignorant of the 
names and number of the rational creatures he 
has made, as that he should be ignorant of the 
stars and the other inanimate products of his al- 
mighty power : and, if he knows all men in gene- 



In Prsefab ad epist. ad Rom. 
11 



126 

rai taken in the lump, he may well be said, in a 
more near and special sense, to know them that 
are his by election, 2 Tim. ii. 19. And, if he 
knows who are his, he must, consequently, know 
who are not his, i. e. whom, and how many he 
hath left in the corrupt mass, to be justly punish- 
ed for their sins. Grant this, (and who can help 
granting a truth so self-evident ?) and it follows 
that the number, as well of the elect as of the 
reprobate, is fixed and certain : otherwise God 
would be said to know that which is not true, and 
his knowledge must be false and delusive, and so 
no knowledge at all : since that which is in it- 
self, at best but precarious, can never be the 
foundation of sure and infallible knowledge* 
But that God does indeed precisely know to a man 
who are and who are not, the objects of his electing 
favour, is evident from such scriptures as these, 
Exod. xxxiii. 17. " Thou hast found grace in 
my sight, and I know thee by name." Jer. i. 5. 
u Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee." 
Luke x. 20. " Your names are written in hea- 
ven." Luke xii. 7. " The very hairs of your 
head are all numbered." John xiii. 18. " I know 
whom I have chosen." John x. 14. "I know 
my sheep, and am known of mine." 2 Tim. ii. 19. 
" The Lord knoweth them that are his." And, 
If the number of these is thus assuredly settled 
and exactly known, it follows that we are right 
in asserting, 

V. That the decrees of election and reproba- 
tion are immutable and irreversible. 

Were not this the case, 1. God's decrees 
would be precarious, frustrable, and uncertain ; 
and, by consequence, no decree at all. 2. His 
foreknowledge would be wavering, indetermi- 
nate, and liable to disappointment ; whereas, it 
always has its accomplishment, and necessarily 



127 

infers the certain futurity of the thing or things 
foreknown : Isa. xlvi. 9, 10. iC I am God, and 
there is none like me, declaring the end from 
the beginning and from ancient times the things 
that are not yet done ; saying, My counsel shall 
stand, and I will do all my pleasure. 55 3. Nei- 
ther would his word be true, which declares, that, 
with regard to the elect, the gifts and calling of 
God are without repentance, Rom. xi. 29. that 
whom he predestinated, them he also glorified, 
chap. vii. 80. that whom he loveth, he loveth to 
the end, John xiii. 1. with numberless passages to 
the same purpose. Nor would his word be true, 
with regard to the non-elect, if it was possible 
for them to be saved; for it is there declared, 
that they are fitted for destruction, &c. Rom. ix. 
22. Foreordained unto condemnation, Jude 4. 
and delivered over to a reprobate mind, in order 
to their damnation, Rom. i. 28. 2 Thess. ii. 12. 
4. If, between the elect and reprobate, there was 
not a great gulf fixed, so that neither can be 
otherwise than they are ; then, the will of God 
(which is the alone cause why some are chosen 
and others are not) would be rendered ineffica- 
cious and of no effect. 5. Nor could the justice 
of God stand, if he was to condemn the elect, 
for whose sins he hath received ample satisfac- 
tion at the hand of Christ ; or if he was to save 
the reprobate, who are not interested in Christy 
as the elect are. 6. The power of God (whereby 
the elect are preserved from falling into a state of 
condemnation, and the wicked held down and shut 
up in a state of death) would be eluded, not to say 
utterly abolished. 7. Nor would God be unchange- 
able, if they, who were once the people of his love, 
could commence the objects of his hatred ; or if 
the vessels of his wrath could be saved with the 



128 

vessels of grace. Hence that of St. Austin y- 
u Brethren," says he, u let us not imagine, that 
God puts down any man in his book, and then era- 
ses him : for, if Pilate could say, what I have writ- 
ten I have written, how can it be thought that the 
great God would write a person's name in the book 
of life, and then blot it out again ?" And may we 
not, with equal reason, ask, on the other hand, 
How can it be thought, that any of the reprobate 
should be written in that book of life, which con- 
tains the names of the elect only ? or, that any 
should be inserted there, who were not written 
among the living from eternity ? I shall conclude 
this chapter with that observation of Luther,f 
" This," says he, "is the very thing that rases the 
doctrine of free-will from its foundations ; to wit, 
that God's eternal love of some men, and hatred 
of others, is immutable and cannot be reversed/' 
Both one and the other will have its full accom- 
plishment. 



Foin. 8. in Psalm 68. col. 738. f De Serv. Arbiter, cap. 15a 



CHAPTER III. 



CONCERNING ELECTION UNTO LIFE ; OR PRE- 
DESTINATION, AS IT RESPECTS THE SAINTS 
IN PARTICULAR. 

HAVING considered predestination, as it re- 
gards all men in general ; and briefly shewn that 
by it, some are appointed to wrath, and others to 
obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. v. 9. I 
now come to consider more distinctly that 
branch of it, which relates to the saints only, and 
is commonly styled election. Its definition I 
have given already in the close of the first chap- 
ter : what I have further to advance from the 
scriptures on this important subject, I shall re- 
duce to several positions, and subjoin a short ex- 
planation and confirmation of each. 

Pas. 1. Those who are ordained unto eternal 
life were not so ordained on account of any wor- 
thiness foreseen in them, or of any good works 
to be wrought by them ; nor yet for their future 
faith : but purely and solely, of free, sovereign 
grace, and according to the mere pleasure of God. 
This is evident, among other considerations, from 
this ; that faith, repentance and holiness, are no less 
the free gifts of God, than eternal life itself. Eph. 
ii. 8. "Faith — is not of yourselves, it is the gift 
of God. Phil. i. 29. " Unto you it is given to 
believe." Acts v. 31. " Him hath God exalted 
with his right hand, for to give repentance.'* 
Acts xi. 18. " Then hath God also to the Gen~ 
11 * 



130 

tiles granted repentance unto life. 35 In like man- 
ner, holiness is called the sanctincation of the 
Spirit, 2 Thess. ii. 13. because the divine Spirit 
is the efficient of it in the soul, and, of unholy, 
makes us holy. Now, if repentance and faith 
are the gifts, and sanctification is the work of 
God, then these are not the fruits of man's free 
will, nor what he acquires of himself; and so 
can neither be motives to, nor conditions of, his 
election, which is an act of the divine mind, an- 
tecedent to, and irrespective of, all qualities what- 
ever, in the persons elected. Besides, the apos- 
tle asserts expressly, that election is " not of 
works, but of him that calleth ;" and that it pass- 
ed before the persons concerned had a done 
either good or evil," Rom. ix. 11. Again, if 
faith or works were the cause of election, God 
could not be said to choose us, but we to choose 
him ; contrary to the whole tenor of scripture ; 
John xv. 16. " Ye have not chosen me, but I 
have chosen you." 1 John iv. 10, 19. u Herein 
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved 
us. We love him, because he first loved us." 
Election is every where asserted to be uod's 
act and not man's, Mark xiii. 20. Rom, ix. 17. 
Eph. i. 4. 1 Thess. v. 9. 2 Thess ii. 13. Once 
more, we are chosen that we might be holy, not 
because it was foreseen we would be so, Eph. i. 
4. Therefore, to represent holiness as the reason- 
why we were elected, is to make the effect ante- 
cedent to the cause. The apostle adds, verse 5. 
" having predestinated us according to the good 
pleasure of his will :" most evidently implying, 
that God saw nothing extra $e, had no motive 
from without, why he should either choose any 
at all, or this man before another. In a word, 
the elect were " freely loved," Hos. xiv. 4. 
a freely chosen," Rom. xi. 5, 6. and " freely re- 



131 

deemed," Isa. lii. 3. they are " freely called," 
2 Tim. i. 9. " freely justified," Rom. iii. 24, 
and shall be " freely glorified," Rom. v. 23. 
The great Augustine in his book of Retractions, 
ingenuously acknowledges his error in having 
once thought, that faith foreseen was a condition 
of election : he owns that that opinion is equal- 
ly impious and absurd ; and proves that faith is 
one of the fruits of election, and consequently, 
could not be in any sense a cause of it : " I could 
never have asserted," says he, " that God, in choos- 
ing men to life, had any respect to their faith, 
had I duly considered that faith itself is his own 
gift." And, in another treatise of his,-^ he has 
these words ; " Since Christ says, ye have not 
chosen me, &c. I would fain ask, whether it be 
scriptural to say, we must have faith before we 
are elected ; and not rather, that we are elected 
in order to our having faith !" 

Pos. 2. As many as are ordained to eternal 
life, are ordained to enjoy that life in and through 
Christ, and on account of his merits alone, 1 
Thess. v. 9. Here let it be carefully observed, 
that not the merits of Christ, but the sovereign 
love of God only, is the cause of election itself : 
but then, the merits of Christ are the alone pro- 
curing cause of that salvation to which men are 
elected. This decree of od admits of no cause 
but of himself; but the thing decreed, which is 
the glorification of his chosen ones, may and 
does admit, nay, necessarily requires, a meritori- 
ous cause ; which is no other than the obedience 
and death of Christ. 

Pas. 3. They w T ho are predestinated to life, 
are likewise predestinated to all those means 



* Be Praedest cap. 17 



132 

which are indispensably necessary in order to 
their meetness for, entrance upon, and enjoyment 
of, that life : such as repentance, faith, sanctifica- 
lion, and perseverance in these to the end. 

Acts xiii. 48. " As many as were ordained to 
eternal life believed." Eph. i. 4. " He hath 
chosen us in him, before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy, and without blame 
before him in love." Eph. ii. 10. " For we [i. e. 
the same we, whom he hath chosen before the 
foundation of the world] are his workmanship, 
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which 
God hath foreordained that we should walk in 
them." And the apostle assures the same Thes- 
salonians whom he reminds of their election, 
and God's everlasting appointment of them to 
obtain salvation, that this also was his will con- 
cerning them, even their sanctification. 1 Thess. 
i. 4. and v. 9. and iv. 3. and gives them a view 
of all these privileges at once, 2 Thess. ii. 13. 
" God hath, from the beginning, chosen you to 
salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, 
and belief of the truth." As does St. Peter, 
1 Pet. 1. 2. "elect — through sanctification of the 
Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ." Now, though faith and 
holiness are not represented as the cause where- 
fore the elect are saved ; yet, these are con- 
stantly represented, as the means through which 
they are saved, or as the appointed way wherein 
God leads his people to glory ; these blessings be- 
ing always bestowed previous to that. Agree- 
able to all which is that of Austin :* Whatso- 
ever persons are, through the riches of divine 
grace, exempted from the original sentence of 



• De Corrept. & Grat cap. ?. 



133 

condemnation, are undoubtedly brought to he^r 
the Gospel;^ and when heard they are caused to 
believe it ; and are made likewise to endure to 
the end, in the faith which works by love : and 
should they at any time go astray, they are re- 
covered and set right again." A little after he 
adds; " All these things are wrought in them 
by that God, who made them vessels of mercy, 
and who, by the election of his grace chose them 
in his Son, before the world began." 

Pos. 4. Not one of the elect can perish, but 
they must all necessarily be saved. The reason 
is this g because God simply and unchangeably 
wills, that all and every one of those whom he 
hath appointed to life should be eternally glori- 
fied ; and, as was observed toward the end of 
the preceding chapter, all the divine attributes 
are concerned in the accomplishment of this his 
will. His wisdom which cannot err ; his know- 
ledge which cannot be deceived ; his truth which 
cannot fail ; his love, which nothing can alien- 
ate ; his justice, which cannot condemn any, 
for whom Christ died ; his power, which none 
can resist ; and his unchangeableness, which can 
never vary : from all which it appears that we 
do not speak at all improperly, when we say, that 
the salvation of his people is necessary and cer- 
tain. Now, that is said to be necessary, quod 
nequit alzter esse, which cannot be otherwise than 
it is : and if all the perfections of God are enga- 
ged to preserve and save his children, their safe- 
ty and salvation must be, in the strictest sense of 



* We must understand this in a qualified sense, as in- 
tending" that all those of the elect, who live where the chris- 
tian dispensation obtains, are, sooner or later, brought to 
hear the gospel, and to believe it. 



134 

the word necessary. See Psalm eiii. IT. and 
cxxv. 1, 2. Isaiah xlv. 17. and liv. 9, 10. Jer. 
xxxi. 38. and xxxii. 40. John vi. 39. and x. 28, 
29. and xiv. 19. and xvii. 12. Rom. viii. 30, 38, 
39, and xi. 29. 1 Cor. i. 8, 9. Phil. i. 6. 1 Pet. i. 
4, 5. 

Thus St. Austin,* " Of those whom God hath 
predestinated, none can perish, inasmuch as they 
are his own elect." And, ib. " They are the 
elect, who are predestinated, foreknown, and call- 
ed according to purpose. Now, could any of 
these be lost, God would be disappointed of his 
will and expectations ; but he cannot be so dis- 
appointed : therefore, they can never perish* 
Again, could they be lost, the power of God 
would be made void by man's sin ; but his power 
is invincible : therefore, they are safe." And 
again, cap. 9. u The children of God are written 
with an unshaken stability, in the book of their 
heavenly Father's remembrance." And, in the 
same chapter he hath these words ; " Not the 
.children of promise but the children of perdi- 
tion shall perish : for the former are the predes- 
tinated, who are called according to the divine 
determination ; not one of whom shall finally 
miscarry." So likewise Luther,] " God's decree 
of predestination is firm and certain ; and the ne- 
cessity resulting from it is, in like manner, im- 
moveable, and cannot but take place. For we 
ourselves are so feeble, that if the matter was 
left in our hands, very few, or rather none would 
be saved : but Satan would overcome us all." To 
which he adds : u Now, since this steadfast and 
inevitable purpose of God cannot be reversed nor 



* Tom. 7 De Corr. h Grat. cap. 
f In Pr<ef at. ad Epist. ad Ronv 



135 

disannulled by any creature whatever ; we have 
a most assured hope, that we shall finally tri- 
umph over sin, how violently soever it may at 
present rage in our mortal bodies." 

Pos. 5. The salvation of the elect was not the 
only, nor yet the principal end of their being cho- 
sen ; but God's grand end in appointing them to 
life and happiness, was to display the riches of 
his own mercy, and that he might be glorified in 
and by the persons he had thus chosen. 

For this reason, the elect are styled vessels of 
mercy, because they were originally created, and 
afterwards, by the divine Spirit created anew, 
with this design, and to this very end, that the 
sovereignty of the Father's grace, the freeness of 
his love, and the abundance of his goodness, 
might be manifested in their eternal happiness. 
Now God, as we have already more than once 
had occasion to observe, does nothing in time 
which he did not from eternity resolve within 
himself to do : and if he in time creates and re- 
generates his people, with a view to display his 
unbounded mercy j he must consequently have 
decreed from all eternity to do this with the same 
view. So that the final causes of election appear 
to be these two: 1. and principally, The* glory 



* Let it be carefully observed, that, when with the scrip- 
tures we assert the glory of God to be the ultimate end of 
his dealings with angels and men, we do not speak this with 
respect to his essential glory, which he has as God, and 
which, as is infinite it is not susceptible of addition, nor ca- 
pable of diminution : but of that glory which is purely mani- 
festative, and which Mircroelius in his Lexic. Philosoph. col. 
471. defines to be, " Clara rei, cum laude, notitia; cum, nem- 
pe, ipsa sua eminentia est magna, augusta, et conspicua.'* 
And the accurate Mastright, Celeb rato, ceu manifestatio, (qua: 
magis proprie glorificatio, quam gloria, appellatur) qua, ag- 
nita intus eminentia, ejusque congrua sestimatio, pronalatur 
& extollitur. Theolog. lib. 5. cap, 22, s. 8. 



136 

of God ; 2. and subordinated, The salvation of 
those he has elected : from which the former ari- 
ses, and by which it is illustrated and set off. So, 
Prov. xvi. 4. "The Lord hath made all things 
for himself." And hence that of Paul, Eph. i. 
" He hath chosen us to the praise of the glo- 
ry of his grace." 

Pos. 6. The end of election, which with re- 
gard to the elect themselves, it is eternal life ; I 
say this end, and the means conducive to it, 
such as the gift of the Spirit, faith, &c. are so in- 
separably connected together, that whoever is 
possessed of these, shall surely obtain that ; and 
none can obtain that who are not first possessed of 
these. Acts xiii. 48. " As many as were ordain- 
ed to eternal life," and none else, " believed." 
Acts v. 31. " Him hath God exalted — to give re- 
pentence unto Israel, and remission of sins :" not 
to all men, or to those who were not, in the coun- 
sel and purpose of God, set apart for himself,- 
but to Israel, all his chosen people, who were 
given to him, were ransomed by him, and shall 
be saved in him with an everlasting salvation. 
Tit. i. 1. "According to the faith of God's 
elect ;" so. that true faith is a consequence of 
election, is peculiar to the elect, and shall issue in 

life eternal. Eph. i. u He hath chosen us 

that we might be holy ; therefore, all who are 
chosen, are made holy, and none but they : and 
all who are sanctified, have a right to believe 
they were elected, and that they shall assuredly 
be saved. Rom. viii. 30. " Whom he did pre- 
destinate, them he also called ; whom he called, 
them he also justified ; and whom he justified, 
them he also glorified." Which shews, that ef- 
fectual calling and justification are indissolubly 
connected with election on one hand, and eternal 
happiness on the other : that they are a proof of 



137 

the former, and an earnest of the latter. John x, 
26. " Ye believe not, because ye are not of my 
sheep j" on the contrary, they who believe ? 
therefore believe, because they are of his sheep* 
Faith then is an evidence of election, or of be- 
ing in the number of Christ's sheep, consequent- 
ly, of salvation : since all his sheep shall be sav- 
ed. John x. 28. 

Pos. 7. The elect may through the grace of 
God attain to the knowledge and assurance of 
their predestination to life ; and they ought to 
seek after it. The Christian may, for instance, 
argue thus ; " As many as were ordained to eter- 
nal life believed :" through mercy I believe, 
therefore I am ordained to eternal life. " He 
that believeth shall be saved :" I believe, there- 
fore, I am in a saved state. " Whom he did 
predestinate, he called, justified, and glorified;' 5 
I have reason to trust that he hath called and jus- 
tified me : therefore I can assuredly look back- 
ward on my eternal predestination, and forward 
to my certain glorification. To all which fre- 
quently accedes the immediate testimony of the 
divine Spirit, witnessing with the believer's con- 
science, that he is a child of God, Rom. viii. 16. 
Gal. iv. 6. 1 John v. 10. Christ forbids his 
little flock to fear, inasmuch as they might, on 
good and solid grounds, rest satisfied and as- 
sured, that " it is the Father's unalterable good 
pleasure to give them the kingdom," Luke xii. 
28. And this was the faith of the aposle, Rom. 
viii. 38, 39. 

Pos. 8. The true believer ought not only to be 
thoroughly established in the point of his own elec- 
tion, but should likewise believe the election of all 
his other fellow-believers and brethren in Christ. 
Now, as there are most evident and indubitable 
marks of election laid down in scripture ; a child 
12 



238 

of God, by examining himself, whether those 
marks are found on him, may arrive at a sober 
and well-grounded certainty of his own particu- 
lar interest in that unspeakable privilege : and, 
by the same rule whereby he judges of himself, 
he may likewise (but with caution) judge of 
others. If I see the external fruits and criteria 
of election on this or that man ; I may reason- 
ably, and in a judgment of charity, conclude 
such an one to be an elect person. So St. Paul, be- 
holding the gracious fruits .which appeared in the 
believing Thessalonians, gathered from thence, 
that they were elected of God, 1 Thess. i. 4, 5. 
and knew also the election of the Christian Ephe- 
sians, Eph. i. 4, 5. as Peter also did that of the 
members of the churches in Pontus, Galatia, &c. 

1 Pet. i. 2. It is true indeed, that all conclusions 
of this nature are not now infallible, but our judg- 
ments are liable to mistake : and God only, w T hose 
is the book of life, and w r ho is the searcher of 
hearts, can absolutely know them that are his, 

2 Tim. ii. 19. yet, we may without a presumptu- 
ous intrusion into things not seen, arrive at a 
moral certainty in this matter. And I cannot 
see how christian love can be cultivated, how 
we can call one another brethren in the Lord, 
or, how believers can hold religious fellowship 
and communion w T ith each other, unless they have 
some solid and visible reason to conclude, that 
they are loved with the same everlasting love, 
were redeemed by the same Saviour, are parta- 
kers of like grace, and shall reign in the same 
glory. 

But here let me suggest one very necessary cau- 
tion ; viz. that though we may at least very pro- 
bably infer the election of some persons, from the 
marks and appearances of grace which may be 
discoverable in them ; yet, we can never judge 



139 

any man whatever to be a reprobate. That there 
are reprobate persons is very evident from scrip- 
ture, (as we shall presently shew ;) but who they 
are, is known alone to him who alone can tell 
who and what men are not written in the Lamb's 
book of life. I grant that there are some par- 
ticular persons mentioned in the divine word, of 
whose reprobation no doubt can be made, such 
as Esau and Judas : but now the canon of scrip- 
ture is completed, we dare not, we must not pro- 
nounce any man living, to be non-elect, be he at 
present ever so wicked. The vilest sinner may, 
for aught we can tell, appertain to the election of 
grace, and be one day wrought upon by the Spi- 
rit of God. This we know that those who die in 
unbelief, and are finally unsanctified, cannot be 
saved : because God in his word tells us so, and 
has represented these as marks of reprobation : 
but, to say that such and such individuals, whom 
perhaps we now see dead in sins, shall never be 
converted to Christ, would be a most presumtu- 
ous assertion, as well as an inexcusable breach of 
the charity which hopeth all things. 



CHAPTER IV. 

QF REPROBATION j OR PREDESTINATION, AS IT 

RESPECTS THE UNGODLY, 

FROM what has been said in the preceding chap- 
ter concerning the election of some, it would una- 
voidably follow, even supposing the scriptures 
had been silent about it, that there must be a re- 
jection of others ; as every choice does most 
evidently and necessarily imply a refusal : for, 
where there is no leaving out there can be no 
choice. But, beside the testimony of reason, 
the divine word is full and express to our pur- 
pose : it frequently, and in terms too clear to be 
misunderstood, and too strong to be evaded by 
any who are not proof against the most cogent 
evidence, attests this tremendous truth, that some 
are of old foreordained to condemnation. I 
shall, in the discussion of this awful subject, fol- 
low the method hitherto observed, and throw 
what I have to say into several distinct positions, 
supported by scripture. 

Pos* 1. God did from all eternity decree to 
leave some of Adam's fallen posterity in their 
sins, and to exclude them from the participation 
of Christ and his benefits. 

For the clearing of this, let it be observed, 
that in all ages the much greater part of man- 
kind have been destitute even of the external 
means of grace ; have not been favoured with 



141 

'the preaching of God's word, or any revelation 
of his will. Thus, anciently, the Jews, who 
were in number the fewest of all people, were 
nevertheless, for a long series of ages, the only 
nation to whom the Deity was pleased to make 
any special discovery of himself: and it is ob- 
servable, that our Lord himself principally con- 
fined the advantages of his public ministry to 
that people ; nay, he forbad his disciples to go 
among any others, Mat. x. 5, 6. and did no* 
commission them to preach the gospel indiscri- 
minately to Jews and Gentiles till after his re- 
surrection, Mark xvi. 15. Luke xxiv. 47. Hence, 
many nations and communities never had the ad- 
vantage of hearing the word preached ; and con- 
sequently were strangers to the faith that cometh 
thereby. It is not indeed improbable but some 
individuals, in these unenlightened countries, 
might belong to the secret election of grace } 
and the habit of faith might be wrought in these : 
however, be that as it will, our argument is not 
affected by it ; it is evident that the nations of 
the world were generally ignorant, not only of 
God himself, but likewise of the way to please 
him, the true manner of acceptance with him, 
and the means of arriving at the everlasting en- 
joyment of him. Now if God had been pleas- 
ed to have saved those people, would he not 
have vouchsafed them the ordinary means of sal- 
vation ? would he not have given them all things 
necessary in order to the end ? but it is undenia- 
ble matter of fact, that he did not ; and to very 
many nations of the earth, does not, at this day* 
If then, the Deity can, consistently with his at- 
tributes, deny to some the means of grace, and 
shut them up in gross darkness and unbelief ; 
why should it be thought incompatible with his 
immensely glorious perfections, to exclude some 
12 * 



142 

persons from grace itself, and from that eternal 
life which is connected with it ; especially, see- 
ing he is equally the Lord and sovereign dispo- 
ser of the end to which the means lead ; as of 
the means which lead to that end ? both one and 
the other are his ; and he most justly may, as he 
most assuredly will, do what he pleases with his 
own. 

Besides, it being also evident, that many, 
even of them who live in places where the gos- 
pel is preached, as well as of those among whom 
it never was preached, die strangers to God and 
holiness, and without experiencing any thing of 
the gracious influences of his Spirit : w r e may 
reasonably and safely conclude, that one cause of 
their so doing, is because it was not the divine 
will to communicate his grace unto them : since, 
had it been his will, he would actually have 
made them partakers thereof; and had they 
been partakers of it, they could not have died 
without it. Now, if it was the will of God in 
time to refuse them this grace ; it must have 
been his will from eternity, since his will is, as 
himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
ever. 

The actions of God being thus fruits of his 
eternal purpose, we may safely, and without any 
danger of mistake, argue from them to that ; 
and infer, that God therefore does such and such 
things because he decreed to do them ; his own 
will being the sole cause of all his works. So 
that from his actually leaving some men in final 
impenitency and unbelief, we assuredly gather, 
that it was his everlasting determination so to 
do: and, consequently, that he reprobated some 
from before the foundation of the world. 

And, as this inference is strictly rational, so is 
it perfectly scriptural* Thus, the judge will in 



143 

the last day, declare to those on the left hand, I 
never knew you. Mat. vii. 23. i. e. " I never, 
no, not from eternity, loved, approved, or acknow- 
ledged you for mine :" or, in other words, " I 
always hated you." Our Lord, in John xvii. 
divides the whole human race into two great 
classes: one he calls the world; the other, the 
men who were given him out of the world. The 
latter, it is said, the Father loved even as he lo- 
ved Christ himself, verse 23. but he loved 
Christ before the foundation of the world, verse 
24. i. e. from everlasting ; therefore, he loved the 
elect so too : and if he loved these from eterni- 
ty, it follows, by all the rules of antithesis, that 
he hated the others as early. So, Rom. ix. 
" The children not being yet born, neither having 
done good or evil, that the purpose of God," &c. 
From the example of the twins, Jacob and Esau, 
the apostle infers the eternal election of some 
men, and the eternal rejection of all the rest. 
Pgs. 2. Some men were from all eternity, not 
only negatively excepted from a participation of 
Christ and his salvation ; but positively ordain- 
ed to continue in their natural blindness, hardness 
of heart, &c. and that, by the just judgment of 
God. See Exod. ix.. 1 Sam. ii. 25. 2 Sam, xvii, 
14. Isa. vi. 9, 10, 11. 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. Nor 
can these places of scripture, with many others 
of like import, be understood of an involuntary 
permission on the part of God ; as if God bare- 
ly suffered it to be so, quasi invitus, as it were by 
constraint, and against his will ; for he permits 
nothing which he did not resolve and determine 
to permit. His permission is a positive, deter- 
minate act of his will \ as Austin, Luther, and 
Bucer, justly observe : therefore, if it be the will 
of God, in time, to permit such and such men to 
continue in their natural state of ignorance and. 



144 

iorruption ; the natural consequence of which is^ 
their falling into such and such sins ; (observe, 
God does not force them into sin ; their actual 
disobedience being only the consequence of their 
not having that grace which God is not obliged to 
grant them ;) I say, if it be the will of God thus 
to leave them in time, (and we must deny de- 
monstration itself, even known, absolute matter 
of fact, if we deny that some are so left,) then it 
must have been the divine intention from all 
eternity so to leave them, since, as we have al- 
ready had occasion to observe, no new will can 
possibly arise in the mind of Goclo We see that 
evil men actually are suffered to go on adding 
sin to sin ; and if it be not inconsistent with the 
sacred attributes actually to permit this, it could 
not possibly be inconsistent with them to decree 
that permission before the foundations of the 
world were laid. 

Thus, God efficaciously permitted (having so de~ 
creed) the Jews to be, in effect, the crucifiers of 
Christ ; and Judas to betray him ; Acts iv. 27, 28« 
Mat, xxvi. 23, 24. Hence we find St* Austin * 
speaking thus ; " Judas was chosen, but it was to 
do a most execrable deed : that thereby the death 
of Christ, and the adorable work of redemption by 
him, might be accomplished. When, therefore, 
we hear our Lord say, " Have not I chosen you 
twelve, and one of you is a devil I" we must un- 
derstand it thus, that the eleven were chosen in 
mercy ; but Judas in judgment : they were cho- 
sen to partake of Chrises kingdom ; he was cho- 
sen and pitched upon to betray him, and be the 
means of shedding his blood*" 



De Corr. & Grat. cap. 7- 



145 

Pos. 3. The non-elect were predestinated, not 
only to continue in final impenitency, sin, and un- 
belief; but were likewise for such their sins, 
righteously appointed to infernal death hereafter* 

This position is also self-evident : for it is cer- 
tain, that in the day of universal judgment, all 
the human race will not be admitted into glory, 
but some of them transmitted to the place of 
torment* Now, God does, and will do, nothing, 
but in consequence of his own decree, Psalm 
cxxxv. 6. Isai. xlvi. 11. Eph. i. 9, 11. therefore, 
the condemnation of the unrighteous was decreed 
of God ; and, if decreed by him, decreed from 
everlasting : for all his decrees are eternal. Be- 
sides, if God purposed to leave those persons un- 
der the guilt and the power of sin, their condem- 
nation must of itself necessarily^follow : Since, 
without justification and sanctification (neither of 
which blessings are in the power of man) none 
can enter heaven, John xiii. 8. Heb. xii. 14. 
Therefore, if God determined within himself 
thus to leave some in their sins (and it is but 
too evident that this is really the case ;) He 
must also have determined within himself to 
punish them for those sins (final guilt and final 
punishment being correlatives which necessarily 
infer each other ;) but God did determinate both to 
leave and to punish the non-elect: therefore 
there was a reprobation of some from eternity. 
Thus, Mat. xxv. " Go ye cursed into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" for 
Satan and all his messengers, emissaries, and imi- 
tators, whether apostate spirits, or apostate men. 
Now, if penal fire was, in decree, from ever- 
lasting, prepared for them ; they, by all the 
laws of argument in the world, must have been, 
in the counsel of God prepared, i. e. designed, 
for that fire ; which is the point I undertook to 



146 

prove. Hence we read, Rom. ix. of vessels of 

Wrath fitted to destruction, xarnflicrftevx US tLW»\um 9 

put together, made up, formed, or fashioned, for 
perdition ; who are, and can be no other than the 
reprobate. To multiply scriptures on this head 
would be almost endless : for a sample, consult 
Prov. xvi. 4. 1 Pet. ii. 8. 2 Pet. ii. 12. Jude 
4. Rev. xiii. 8. 

Pos* 4. As the future faith and good works of 
the elect were not the cause of their being cho- 
sen, so neither were the future sins of the repro- 
bate the cause of their being passed by; but both 
the choice of the former, and the decretive omis- 
sion of the latter, were owing merely and entire- 
ly to the sovereign will and determinating plea- 
sure of God. 

We distinguish between preterition, or bare 
non-election, which is purely a negative thing | 
and condemnation, or appointmentto punishment : 
the will of God was the cause of the former, 
the sins of the non-elect are the reasons of the latter. 
Though God determined to leave, and actually 
does leave, whom he pleases, in the spiritual 
darkness and death of nature, out of which he 
is under no obligation to deliver them ; yet he 
does not positively condemn any of these merely 
because he hath not chosen them, but because 
they have sinned against him : see Rom. i. 21 — ■ 
24. Rom. ii. 8, 9. 2 Thess. ii. 12. Their prete- 
rition, or non-inscription in the book of life, is 
not unjust on the part of God, because, out of a 
world of rebels, equally involved in guilt, God, 
(who might, without any impeachment of his 
justice, have passed by all, as he did the repro- 
bate angels) was most unquestionably at liberty, 
if it so pleased him, to extend the sceptre of his 
clemency to some ; and to pitch upon whom he 
would as the objects of it. Nor was this exempt 



147 

tion of some any injury to the non-elect ; whose 
case would have been just as bad as it is, even 
supposing the others had not been chosen at all. 
Again, the condemnation of the ungodly (for it 
is under that character alone that they are the 
subjects of punishment, and were ordained to it) 
is not unjust, seeing it is for sin, and only for 
sin. None are or will be punished but for their 
iniquities ; and all iniquity is properly meritori- 
ous of punishment ; where then is the supposed 
unmercifulness, tyranny, or injustice of the Di- 
vine procedure ? 

Pqs. 5. God is the creator of the wicked, but 
not of their wickedness : he is the author of their 
being, but not the infuser cf their sin. 

It is most certainly his will, for adorable and 
unsearchable reasons, to permit sin ; but, with 
all possible reverence be it spoken, it should seem 
that he cannot, consistently with the purity of his 
nature, the glory of his attributes, and the truth of 
his declarations, be himself the author of it. Sin, 
says the apostle, entered into the world by one 
man, meaning by Adam : consequently, it was 
not introduced by the Deity himself. Though, 
without the permission of his will, and the con- 
currence of his providence, its introduction had 
been impossible ; yet is he not hereby the author 
of sin so introduced.^' Luther observes, (De 



* It is a known and very just maxim of the schools, affec- 
tum sequitur causam proximam : " An effect follows from, and 
is to be ascribed to the last immediate cause that produced 
it." Thus, for instance, if I hold a book, or a stone, in my 
hand, my holding it is the immediate cause of its not falling' ; 
but, if I let it go, my letting it go is not the immediate cause of 
its falling : it is carried downward by its own gravity ,which is, 
therefore, the causa proxime effectus, the proper and immedi- 
ate cause of its descent. It is true, if I had kept my hold of 
it, it would not have fallen ; yet still, the immediate direct 



148 

Serv. Arb* c. 42.) " It is a great degree of faith, 
to believe, that God is merciful and gracious, 
though he saves so few, and condemns so many ; 
and that he is strictly just, though in consequence 
of his own will, he made us not exempt from lia- 
bleness to condemnation." And cap. 148. Al- 
though God doth not make sin, nevertheless he 
ceases not to create and multiply individuals in 
the human nature, which, through the withhold- 
ing of his Spirit, is corrupted by sin : just as a 
skilful artist may form curious statues out of bad 
materials. So, such as their nature is, such are 
men themselves ; God forms them out of such a 
nature." 

Pos. 6. The condemnation of the reprobate is 
necessary and inevitable. 

Which we prove thus : It is evident from 
scripture that the reprobate shall be condemned. 
But nothing comes to pass (much less can the 
condemnation of a rational creature,) but in conse- 
quence of the will and decree of God. Therefore 
the non-elect could not be condemned, was it not 
the divine pleasure and determination that they 
should. And if God wills and determines their 
condemnation, that condemnation is necessary 
and inevitable. By their sins, they have made 
themselves guilty of death : and, as it is not the 
will of God to pardon those sins, and grant them 
repentance unto life ; the punishment of such 
impenitent sinners is as unavoidable as it is just. 
It is our Lord's own declaration, Mat. vii. that 



cause of its fall, is its own weight, not my quitting my hold. 
The application of this to the Providence of God, as concern- 
ed in sinful events, is easy. Without God there could have 
been no creation ; without creation, no creatures ; without 
creatures, no sin. Yet is not sin chargeable on God : for ef- 
fectus sequitur causam proximam* 



149 

a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit ;'* 
or, in other words, that a depraved sinner cannot 
produce in himself those gracious habits, nor ex- 
ert those gracious acts, without which no adult 
person can be saved. Consequently the repro- 
bate must, as corrupt, fruitless trees, (or fruitful 
in evil only,) be " hewn down, and cast into the 
fire," Mat. iii. This, therefore, serves as another 
argument in proof of the inevitability of their 
future punishment: which argument, in brief, 
amounts to this ; They who are not saved from 
sin must unavoidably perish : but the reprobate 
are not saved from sin ; (for they have neither will 
nor power to save themselves, and God, though he 
certainly can, yet he certainly will not save them :) 
Therefore, their perdition is unavoidable. Nor 
does it follow from hence, that God forces the 
reprobate into sin, and thereby into misery, 
against their wills ; but that in consequence of 
their natural depravity (which it is not the divine 
pleasure to deliver them out of, neither is he 
bound to do it, nor are they themselves so much 
as desirous that he would,) they are voluntarily 
biased and inclined to evil : nay, which is worse 
still, they hug and value their spiritual chains, 
and even greedily pursue the paths of sin, which 
lead to the chambers of death. Thus God does 
not (as we are slanderously reported to affirm) 
compel the wricked to sin, as the rider spurs for- 
ward an unwilling horse : God only says, in ef- 
fect, that tremendous word, Let them alone, 
Mat. xv. 14. He need but slacken the reins of 
providential restraint, and withhold the influence 
of saving grace ; and apostate man will, too 
soon, and too surely, of his own accord, fall by 
his iniquity : he will presently be, spiritually 
speaking, a felo de se, and, without any other ef- 
ficiency, lay violent hands on his soul* So that, 
IS 



150 

though the condemnation of the reprobate is un- 
avoidable ; yet the necessity of it is so far from 
making them mere machines, or involuntary 
agents, that it does not in the least interfere with 
the rational freedom of their wills, nor serve to 
render them less inexcusable. 

Pos. 7. The punishment of the non-elect was 
not the ultimate end of their creation ; but the 
glory of God. 

It is frequently objected to us, that, according 
to our view of predestination, u God makes 
some persons on purpose to damn them :" But 
this we never advanced ; nay, we utterly reject 
it, as equally unworthy of God to do, and of a 
rational being to suppose. The grand, principal 
end proposed by the Deity to himself, in his 
formation of all things, and of mankind in par- 
ticular, was the manifestation and display of 
his own glorious attributes* His ultimate scope 
in the creation of the elect is to evidence and 
make known by their salvation, the unsearchable 
riches of his power and wisdom, mercy and love : 
and the creation of the non- elect is for the dis- 
play of his justice, power, sovereignty, holiness, 
and truth. So that nothing can be more certain, 
than the declaration of the text we have frequent- 
ly had occasion to cite, Prov. xvi. " The Lord 
hath made all things for himself, even the wick- 
ed for the day of evil." On one hand, the ves- 
sels of wrath are fitted for destruction, in order 
that God may shew his wrath and make his pow- 
er known, and manifest the greatness of his pa- 
tience and long suffering, Rom. ix. 22. On the 
other hand, he afore prepared the elect to salva- 
tion, that on them he might demonstrate the 
riches of his glory and mercy, verse 23. As, 
therefore, C od himself is the sole author and ef- 
ficient of all his own actions : so is he, likewise, 



151 

the supreme end to which they lead, and in whicfc 
they terminate. 

Besides, the creation and perdition of the un- 
godly answer another purpose (though a subordi- 
nate one,) with regard to the elect themselves ; who, 
from the rejection of those, learn, 1. To admire 
the riches of the divine love toward themselves, 
which planned, and has accomplished, the work 
of their salvation : while others, by nature on an 
equal level with them, are excluded from a par- 
ticipation of the same benefits. And such a view 
of the Lord's distinguishing mercy is, 2. A most 
powerful motive to thankfulness, that, when they 
too might justly have been condemned with the 
world of the non-elect, they were marked out as 
heirs of the grace of life. 3. Hereby they are 
taught ardently to love their heavenly Father ; 
4. To trust in him assuredly for a continued sup- 
ply of grace while they are on earth, and for the 
accomplishment of his eternal decree and pro- 
mise by their glorification in heaven ; and, 5. To 
live as becomes those who have received such 
unspeakable mercies from the hand of their God 
and Saviour. So Bueer somewhere observes, 
That the punishment of the reprobate, " is use- 
ful to the elect ; inasmuch as it influences them 
to a greater fear and abhorrence of sin, and to a 
firmer reliance on the goodness of God." 

Pos. 8. Notwithstanding God did from all 
eternity irreversibly choose out and fix upon 
some to be partakers of salvation by Christ, and 
rejected the rest) who are therefore termed by 
the apostle, ci Mtn-ot, the refuse, or those that re- 
mained, and were left out ;) acting in both ac- 
cording to the good pleasure of his own sove- 
reign will : yet he did not herein act an unjust, 
tyrannical, or cruel part; nor yet shew himself 
a respecter of persons. 



152 

J. He is not unjust in reprobating some s nel* 
ther can he be so ; for " the Lord is holy in all 
his ways, and righteous in all his works," Psalm 
cxlv. But salvation and damnation are works of 
his : consequently, neither of them is unrigh- 
teous or unholy. It is undoubted matter of fact, 
that the Father draws some men to Christ, and 
saves them in him with an everlasting salvation ; 
and that he neither draws nor saves some others : 
and, if it be not unjust in God actually to for- 
bear saving these persons after they are born, it 
could not be unjust in him to determine as much, 
before they were born. What is not unjust for 
God to do in time, could not, by parity of ar- 
gument, be unjust in him to resolve upon and 
decree from eternity. And, surely, if the apos- 
tle*s illustration be allowed to have any proprie- 
ty, or to carry any authority, it can no more be 
unjust in God to set apart some for communion 
with himself in this life and the next, and to 
set aside others, according to his own free plea- 
sure ; than for a potter, to make out of the same 
mass of clay, some vessels for honourable, and 
others for inferior uses. The Deity, being abso- 
lute Lord of all his creatures, is accountable to 
none for his doings ; and cannot be chargeable 
with injustice for disposing of his own as he 
will. 

Nor, 2. Is the decree of reprobation a tyran- 
nical one. It is, indeed, strictly sovereign ; but 
lawful sovereignty and lawless tyranny are as re- 
ally distinct and different, as any two opposites 
can be. He is a tyrant, in the common accepta- 
tion of that word, who, 1. Either usurps the 
sovereign authority, and arrogates to himself a 
dominion to which he has no right : or, 2. Who, 
being originally a lawful prince, abuses his pow- 
er, and governs contrary to law.. But who dares 



153 

to lay either of these accusations to the divine 
charge ? God, as Creator, has a most unquestion- 
able and unlimited right over the souls and bo- 
dies of men ; unless it can be supposed, contra- 
ry to all scripture and common sense, that, in 
making of man, he made a set of beings superi- 
or to himself, and exempt from his jurisdiction* 
Taking it for granted, therefore, God has an ab- 
solute right of sovereignty over his creatures | 
if he should be pleased (as the scriptures repeat- 
edly assure us that he is) to manifest and display 
that right, by graciously saving some, and justly 
punishing others for their sins — Who are we 
that we should reply against God ? 

Neither does the ever blessed Deity fall under 
the second notion of a tyrant ; namely, as one 
who abuses his power by acting contrary to law : 
for, by what exterior law is he bound, who is 
the supreme lawgiver of the universe ? The laws 
promulgated by him are designed for the rule of 
our conduct, not of his.. Should it be objected, 
that, u His own attributes of goodness and jus- 
tice, holiness and truth, are a law to himself ; w 
I answer, that, admitting this to be the case, 
there is nothing in the decree of reprobation as 
represented in scripture, and by us from thence, 
which clashes with any of these perfections. 
With regard to the divine goodness, though the 
non-elect are not objects of it in the sense the 
elect are ; yet even they are not wholly excluded 
from a participation of it. They enjoy the good 
things of providence, in common with God's 
children, and, very often, in a much higher de- 
gree. Besides, goodness,, considered as it is in God, 
would have been just the same infinite and glori- 
ous attribute, supposing no rational beings had- 
been created at all, or saved when created. To 
which may be added, that the goodness of the 
13 * 



154 

Deity does not cease to be infinite in itself, only 
because it is more extended to some objects* than 
it is to others : The infinity of this perfection, as 
residing in God and coinciding with his essence, 
is sufficiently secured, without supposing it to 
reach indiscriminately to all the creatures he 
has made. For, was this way of reasoning to 
be admitted, it would lead us too far, and prove 
too much : since, if the infinity of his goodness 
is to be estimated by the number of objects up- 
on which it terminates, there must be an abso- 
lute proper infinity of reasonable beings to ter- 
minate that goodness upon : consequently, it 
would follow from such premises, either that 
the creation is as truly infinite as the Creator \ 
or, if otherwise, that the Creator's goodness could 
not be infinite, because it has not an infinity of 
objects to make happy.^ Lastly, if it was not 



* The late most learned and judicious Mr. Chamock haSj, 
in my judgment at least, proved most clearly and satisfacto- 
rily, that the exclusion of some individual persons from a 
participation of saving* grace is perfectly consistent with 
God's unlimited goodness. He observes, that " The good- 
ness of the Deity is infinite, and circumscribed by no limits. 
The exercise of his goodness may be limited by himself; 
;-?ut his goodness, the principle, cannot : for, since his essence 
is infinite, and his goodness is not distinguished from his es- 
sence ; it is infinite also. God is necessarily good in his na- 
ture ; but free in his communications of it He is necessa- 
rily good, effective, in regard of his nature ; but freely good, 
effective, in regard of the effluxes of it to this or that parti- 
cular subject he pitcheth upon. He is not necessarily com- 
municative of his goodness, as the sun of its light, or a tree 
of its cooling shade, which chooses not its objects, but en- 
lightens all indifferently, without variation or distinction ; 
this were to make God of no more understanding than the 
sun, which shines, not where it pleases, but where it must. 
He is an understanding agent, and hath a sovereign right to 
choose his own subjects. It would not be a supreme, if it 
were not a voluntary goodness. It is agreeable to the nature 
of the Highest Good to be absolutely free j and to dispense 



155 

Incompatible with God ? s infinite goodness, to pass 
by the whole body of fallen angels, and leave 
them under less guilt of their apostacy ; much 
less can it clash with that attribute, to pass by 
some of fallen mankind, and resolve to leave 
them in their sins, and punish them for them* 
Nor is it inconsistent with the divine justice, to 
withhold saving grace from some ; seeing the 
grace of God is not what he owes to any. It is 
a free gift to those that have it ; and is not due 
to those that are without it : consequently, there 
can be no injustice in not giving what God is 
not bound to bestow. 

There is no end of caviling at the divine dis- 
pensations, if men are disposed to it. We mighty 
with equality of reason, when our hand is in. 



his goodness in what methods and measures he pleases, ac- 
cording" to the free determinations of his own will, guided 
by the wisdom of his mind, and regulated by the holiness of 
his nature. He will be good to whom he will be good. 
When he doth act he cannot but act well : So far it is neces- 
sary : yet he may act this good or that good, to this or that 
degree ; so it is free ; as it is the perfection of his nature, it 
is necessary : as it is the communication of his bounty, it is 
voluntary. The eye cannot but see, if it be open ; yet it 
may glance on this or that colour, fix upon this or that ob- 
ject, as it is conducted by the will. What necessity could 
there be on God to resolve to communicate his goodness 
fat all ?] it could not be to make himself better by it ; for 
he had [before] a goodness incapable of any addition. What 
obligation could there be from the creature? Whatever 
sparks of goodness any creature hath, are the free effusions 
Of God ? s bounty, the offspring of his own inclination to do 
well, the simple favour of the donor. God is as unconstrain- 
ed in his liberty, in all his communications, as [he is] infinite 
in his goodness, the fountain of them." CharnocPs Works* 
vol. 1. p. 583, &c. With whom agrees the excellent Dr. 
Bates (sirnamed for his eloquence, the silver-tongued ;) and 
who, if he had a silver-tongue, had likewise a golden pen : 
" God," says lie "is a wise and free agent ; and as he is infi- 
nite in goodness, so the exercise of it is voluntary, and only 
so far as he pleases." Harm, of Div. Jittrib, chap. 3. 



156 

presume to charge the Deity with partiality, for 
not making all his creatures angels, because it 
was in his power to do so, as charge him with 
injustice for not electing ail mankind. Besides, 
how can it possibly be subversive of his justice, 
to condemn, and resolve to condemn, the non- 
elect for their sins ; when those very sins were 
not atoned for by Christ, as the sins of the elect 
were ? His justice in this case is so far from 
hindering the condemnation of the reprobate; 
that it renders it necessary and indispensable* 
Again, is the decree of sovereign preterition, and 
of just condemnation for sin, repugnant to the 
divine holiness ? not in the least : so far from it ? 
that it does not appear how the Deity could be 
holy, if he did not hate sin, and punish it. Nei- 
ther is it contrary to his truth and veracity. Quite 
the reverse. For, would not the divine veracity 
fall to the ground, if the finally wicked were not 
condemned ? 

3. God in the reprobation of some does not 
act a cruel part. Whoever accused a chief ma- 
gistrate of cruelty, for not sparing a company of 
attrocious malefactors, and for letting the sentence 
of the law take place upon them by their execu- 
tion ? If, indeed, the magistrate please to pity 
some of them, and remit their penalty, we ap- 
plaud his clemency; but the punishment of the 
rest is no impeachment of his mercy. Now v 
with regard to God, his mercy is free and volun- 
tary. He may extend it to, and withhold it from 
whom he pleases, Rom. ix. 15, 18. and it is sad 
indeed, if we will not allow the Sovereign, the 
all-wise Governor of heaven and earth, the same 
privilege and liberty we allow to a supreme ma^ 
gistrate below. 

Nor, 4. Is God, in choosing some and rejecting 
others, a respecter of persons. He only cornea 



157 

under that title, who, on account of parentage 
country, dignity, wealth, or for any other 5 * exter- 



* TCgdo-weXw^ta, Persona Acceptio, quummagis huic fave- 
mus, quam illi, ob circumstantiam aliquam, ceu qualitatem, 
externam, ei adhserentem ; puta genus, dignitatem, cpes, 
patriam, &c. Scapula, in voc. 

So that elegant, accurate, and learned Dutch divine, Lau* 
rentius : Haec vero [i.e. ngAcruTraXvi-^/icz] est, quando perso- 
na person ae prsefertur ex causa indebita ; puta, si judex 
absolvat reum, vel quia dives est, vel quia potens, vel quia 
magistratus est, vel quia amicus Stprepinquus est, &c. " That 
is respect of persons, when one man is preferred to another 
on some sinister and undue account: as when a judge acquits 
a criminal, merely because he is rich, or powerful, or is his 
friend, or relation, &c." Comment in Epist. Jacob p. 92. 

Now, in the matter of election and pretention, God is influ- 
enced by no such motives : nor, indeed, by any exterior in- 
ducement, or any motive, extra se 9 out of himself. He does 
not, for instance, condemn any persons on account of their 
poverty : but on the reverse, hath chosen many who are poor 
in this world, Jam. ii. 5. Nor does he condemn any for be- 
ing rich ; for some even of the mighty and noble are called 
by his grace. 1 Cor. i. 26. He does not respect any man's 
parentage, or country ; for the elect will be " gathered to- 
gether from the four winds, from under one end of heaven to 
the other," Mat. xxiv. 31. and he hath redeemed to himself a 
select number, "out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
ple, and nation," Rev. v. 9. and vii. 9. So far is God from 
being in any sense a respecter of persons, that, in Christ Je- 
sus, there is " neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male 
nor female," Gal. iii. 28. He does not receive one, nor re- 
ject another, merely for coming or not coming under any of 
these characters. His own sovereign will, and not their ex- 
ternal or internal circumstances, was the sole^rule, by which 
he proceeded in appointing some to salvation, and decreeing 
to leave others in their sins : so that God is not herein a 
respecter of their persons, but a respecter of himself, and 
his own glory. 

And as God is no respecter of persons, because he chooses 
some as objects of his favour, and omits others ; all being on 
a perfect equality ; so neither does it follow, that he is such, 
from his actually conferring spiritual and eternal blessings on 
the former, and denying them to the latter : seeing these 
blessings are absolutely his own, and which he may, there- 
fore without injustice give or not give at his pleasure. Dr, 



158 

nal consideration, shews more favour to one per- 
son than to another. But that is not the case with 
God. He considers all men as sinners by nature $ 
and has compassion not on persons of this or that 
sect, country T sex, age, or station in life, because 
they are so circumstanced, but on whom, and be* 
cause he will have compassion* Pertinent to the 
present purpose is that passage of St. Austin ;* 



Whitby himself, though so strenuous an adversary to every 
thing that looks like predestination, yet very justly observes 
(and such a concession, from such a pen, merits the reader's 
attention,) Locum non habet [sell. irgor'ene#)w$/t0i} in bonis 
mere liberis & gratuitis ; neque in iis, in quibus, unum alteri 
prseferre, nostri arbitrii aut privilegii est. Ethic Compend. 
1. 2. c. 5. sect. 9. i. e. " The bestowing" [and consequently, 
the withholding] " of such benefits, as are merely gratui- 
tous and undeserved, does not argue respect of persons ; nei* 
ther is it respect of persons to prefer one before another, 
when we have a right, and it is our pleasure so to 
do." I shall only add the testimony of Thomas Aquinas; 
a man of some genius, and much application; who, though 
in very many things, a laborious trifler, was yet, on some 
subjects, a clear reasoner, and judicious writer. His words 
are, " Duplex est datio ; una quidem pertinens ad justitiam; 
qua, scilicet, aliquis dat alicui quod ei debetur ; & 
circa tales dationes attenditur personarum acceptio. AH est 
datio ad liberalitatem pertinens ; qua, scilicet, gratis datur 
alicui quod ei non debetur. Et tails est Collatio munerum 
gratiae, per qua: peccatores assumuntur a Deo. Et, in hac 
donatione, non habet locum personarum acceptio ; qui quili- 
bet, absque injustitia, potest de suo dare quantum vult. & 
oui vult: secundum illud, Mat. xx. Ann'on licet mihi, quod 
volo, facere ? tolle quod tuum est, & vade." i. e. " There is 
a twofold rendering or giving ; the one a matter of justice, 
whereby that is paid to a man which was due to him. Here 
it is possible for us to act partially, and with respect of per* 
sons :" [Thus, for example's sake, if I owe money to two men, 
one of whom is rich, the other poor ; and I pay the ricli man, 
because he has it in his power to sue me 9 but defraud the other, 
because of his inability to do himself justice ; I should be a 
respecter of persons. But, as Aquinas goes on] " There is 
a second kind of rendering or giving ; which is a branch of 

* Tom. % Epist 105. ad Sistum Presb> 



15$ 

** Forasmuch as some people imagine, that they 
must look on God as a respecter of persons, if 
they believe, that, without any respect had to the 
previous merits of men, he hath mercy on whom 
he will, and calls whom it is his pleasure to call, 
and makes good whom he pleases. The scrupu- 
lousness of such people arises from their not duly 
attending to this one thing, namely, that damna- 
tion is rendered to the wicked as a matter of 
debt, justice, and desert ; whereas, the grace 
given to those who are delivered, is free and un- 
merited : so that the condemned sinner cannot al- 
lege that he is unworthy of his punishment ; 
nor the saint vaunt or boast, as if he was worthy 
of his reward. Thus, in the whole course of this 
procedure, there is no respect of persons. They 
who are condemned, and they who are set at li- 
berty, constituted originally one and the same 
lump, equally infected with sin, and liable to 
vengeance. Hence, the justified may learn from 
the condemnation of the rest, what would have 
been their own punishment, had not God's free 
grace stepped in to their rescue." 

Before I conclude this head, I will obviate a 
fallacious objection, very common in the mouths 
of our opponents : " How," say they, " is the 

«— — — « ; 

mere bounty and liberality, by which that is freely bestowed 
on any man which was not due to him. Such are the gifts of 
grace, whereby sinners are received of God. In the bestow- 
ment of grace, respect of persons is absolutely out of the 
question ; because every one may and can, without the least 
shadow of injustice, give as much of his own as he will, and 
to whom he will : according to that passage in Mat. xx. " Is 
it not lawful for me to do what I will [with my own ?] take 
up that which is thine, and go thy way." Aquin. Summ. 
Theol. 2— -2d* Qu. 63. A. 1. 

On the whole, it is evident, that respect of persons can 
only have place in matters of justice, and is but another name 
for perversion of justice : consequently, it has nothing to do 
with matters of mere goouness and bounty 5 as all ths bless 
itrgs of grace and salvatiQn ar^t - - 



160 

doctrine of reprobation reconcileable with the 
doctrine of a future judgment :" To which I an- 
swer, that there need no pains to reconcile these 
two, since they are so far from interfering with 
each other, that one follows from the other, and 
the former renders the latter absolutely necessary* 
Before the judgment of the great day, Christ 
does not so much act as the judge of his crea- 
tures, as their absolute Lord and Sovereign. 
From the first creation to the final consumma- 
tion of all things ; he does, in consequence of his 
own eternal and immutable purpose (as a divine 
person,) graciously work in and on his own elect, 
and permissively harden the reprobate. But, 
when all the transactions of providence and grace 
are wound up in the last day, he will then pro- 
perly sit as Judge ; and openly publish, and so- 
lemnly ratify, if I may so say, his everlasting de- 
crees, by receiving the elect, body and soul, into 
glory, and by passing sentence on the non-elect 
(not for their having done what they could not 
help, but) for their wilful ignorance of divine 
things, and their obstinate unbelief; for their 
omission of moral duty, and for their repeated 
iniquities and transgressions. 

Pos. 9. Notwithstanding God's predestination 
is most certain and unalterable, so that no elect 
person can perish, nor any reprobate be saved ; 
yet it does not follow from thence, that all pre- 
cepts, reproofs, and exhortations, on the part of 
God, or prayers on the part of man, are useless, 
vain, and insignificant. 

1. These are not useless with regard to the 
elect, for they are necessary means of bringing 
them to the knowledge of the truth at first : af- 
terwards, of stirring up their pure minds by way 
of remembrance, and of edifying and establish- 
ing them in faith, love, and holiness. Hence 
that of St. Austin : M The commandment wiU 



161 

tell thee, O man, what thou oughtest to have ; re* 
proof will shew thee wherein thou art wanting ; 
and praying will teach thee from whom thou must 
receive the supplies which thou wan test." Nor, 
2. Are these vain with regard to the reprobate : 
for, precept, reproof, and exhortation may, if duly 
attended to, be a means of making them careful 
to adjust their moral, external conduct, accord- 
ing to the rules of decency, justice, and regular- 
ity ; and thereby prevent much inconvenience to 
themselves and injury to society. And, as for 
prayer, it is the duty of all, without exception. 
Every created being (whether elect or reprobate, 
matters not as to this point) is as such de- 
pendent on the Creator for all things : and if de- 
pendent, ought to have recourse to him, both in 
a way of supplication and thanksgiving. 

But, to come closer still. That absolute pre- 
destination does not set aside, nor render super- 
fluous, the use of preaching, exhortation, &c. we 
prove from the examples of Christ himself and 
his apostles, who all taught and insisted upon the 
article of predestination ; and yet took every op- 
portunity of preaching it to sinners, and enforced 
their ministry with proper rebukes, invitations, and 
exhortations, as occasion required. Though they 
shewed unanswerably, that salvation is the free 
gift of God, and lies entirely at his sovereign 
disposal | that men can of themselves do nothing 
spiritually good : and that it is God, who of his 
own pleasure, works in them both to will and to 
do ; yet, they did not neglect to address their au- 
ditors, as beings possessed of reason and con- 
science, nor omitted to remind them of their du- 
ties as such ; but shewed them their sin and dan- 
ger by nature, and laid before them the appointed 
way and method of salvation, as e hibited in the 
-$ospel. Our Saviour himself, expressly, and in 
14 



152 

terminis, assures us that no man can come to 
him except the Father draw him : and yet he 
says, " Came unto me all ye that labour," &c. 
St, Peter, in the 2d of Acts, told the Jews, that 
they had fulfilled the determinate counsel and 
foreknowledge of God, in putting the Messiah to 
death ; and yet sharply rebukes them for it/ St. 
Paul declares, " It is not of him that w r illeth, nor 
of him that runneth ;" and yet exhorts the Corin- 
thians, " so to run as to obtain the prize." He as- 
sures us, Rom. viii. that " we know not what we 
pray for as we ought ;" and yet, 1 Thess. v. di- 
rects us to " pray without ceasing." He avers, 
1 Tim. ii. that the u foundation, or decree of the 
Lord standeth sure ;" and yet cautions him, who 
J* thinks he stands, to take heed lest he fall." St« 
James, in like manner says, that u Every good 
and perfect gift cometh down from above ;" and 
yet exhorts those who want wisdom, to ask it of 
God. So, then, all these being means whereby 
the elect are frequently enlightened into the 
knowledge of Christ, and by which they are, af- 
ter they have believed through grace, built up in 
him ; and are means of their perseverance to 
the end ; these are so far from being vain and in- 
significant, that they are highly useful and neces- 
sary, and answer many valuable and important 
ends, without in the least shaking the doctrine of 
predestination in particular, or the analogy of 
faith in general. Thus St. Austin,^ " We must 
preach, we must reprove, we must pray ; be- 
cause they to whom grace is given will hear and 
act accordingly ; though they to whom grace is 
not given will do neither." 



* Pe Bon. Per&evc cap. 14- 



CHAPTER V. 

SHEWING THAT THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
OF PREDESTINATION SHOULD BE OPENLY 
PREACHED AND INSISTED ON \ AND TOR 
WHAT REASONS. 

UPON the whole, it is evident that the doctrine 
of God's eternal and unchangeable predestina- 
tion should neither be wholly suppressed and laid 
aside, nor yet be confined to the disquisition of 
the learned and speculative only ; but likewise 
should be publicly taught from the pulpit and 
the press, that even the meanest of the people 
may not be ignorant of a truth which reflects 
such glory on God, and is the very foundation of 
happiness to man. Let it, however, be preached 
with judgment and discretion : i. e. delivered by 
the preacher as it is delivered in scripture ; and 
no otherwise. By which means it can neither be 
abused to licentiousness, nor misapprehended to 
despair ; but will eminently conduce to the 
knowledge, establishment, improvement and com- 
fort of them that hear. That predestination 
ought to be preached I thus prove : 

1 The gospel is to be preached, and that not 
partially, and by piecemeal, but the whole of it. 
The commission runs, u Go forth and preach 
the gospel ; the gospel itself, even all the gos- 
pel, without exception or limitation, for so far as 
the gospel is maimed, or any branch of the evan- 
gelical system is suppressed and passed over in 



164 

silence, so far the gospel is not preached. Be- 
sides, there is scarce any other distinguishing 
doctrine of the gospel can be preached in its pu- 
rity and consistency, without this of predestina- 
tion. Election is the golden thread that runs 
through the whole christian system ; it is the 
leaven, that pervades the whole lump. Cicero 
says of the various parts of human learning, 
" Omnes artes, quae ad humanitatem pertinent, 
habent quodam commune vinculum, and quasi 
eognatione quadam inter se continentur : i. e. 
The whole circle of arts have a kind of mutual 
bond and connexion ; and, by a sort of recipro- 
cal relationship, are held together, and interwo- 
ven with each other." Much the same may be 
said of this important doctrine ; it is the bond 
which connects and keeps together the whole 
christian system ; which without this, is like a 
system of sand, ever ready to fall to pieces. It 
is the cement which holds the fabric together ; 
nay, it is the verv soul that animates the whole 
frame* It is so blended and interwoven with the 
entire scheme of gospel doctrine, that when the 
former is excluded, the latter bleeds to death. 
An ambassador is to deliver the whole message 
with which he is charged. He is to omit no 
part of it, but must declare the mind of the sove- 
reign he represents, fully and without reserve. 
He is to say neither more nor less than the in- 
structions of his court require. Else, he comes 
under displeasure, perhaps loses his head. Let 
the ministers of Christ weigh this well. 

Nor is the gospel to be preached only, but 
preached to every creature ; that is, to rea- 
sonable beings promiscuously and at large ; to all 
who frequent the christian ministry, of every 
state and condition in life ; whether high or low, 
young or old, learned or illiterate. All who at* 



165 

tend on the ministrations of Christ's ambassa- 
dors have a right to hear the gospel fully, clearly, 
and without mincing. Preach it, says Christ, 
Mark xvi. 15. *3?f|*7*, publish it abroad, be its 
criers and heralds ; proclaim it aloud, tell it out ? 
keep back no part of it, spare not, lift up your 
voices like trumpets. Now, a very considerable 
branch of this gospel is, The doctrine of God's 
eternal, free, absolute, and irreversible election of 
some persons in Christ to everlasting life. The 
saints were singled out, in God's eternal purpose 
and choice, ut crederent, to be endued with faith, 
and thereby fitted for their destined salvation. 
By their interest in the gratuitous, unalienable 
love of the blessed Trinity, they come to be, sub- 
jectively, saints and believers ; so that their 
whole salvation, from the first plan of it in the 
divine mind, to the consummation of it in glory, 
is at once a matter of mere grace, and of abso- 
lute certainty. While they who die without faith 
and holiness, prove thereby that they were not 
included in this elect number, and were not 
written in the book of life. The justice of God's 
procedure herein is unquestionable. Out of a 
corrupt mass, wherein not one was better than 
another, he might (as was observed before) love 
and choose whom and as many as he pleased. It 
was likewise without any shadow of injustice at 
his option, whom and how many he would pass 
by. His not choosing them was the fruit of his 
sovereign will ; but his condemning them after 
death, and in the last day is the fruit (not of 
their non«eleetion, which was no fault of theirsT 
but) of their own positive transgressions* The 
elect, therefore, have the utmost reason to love 
and glorify God which any beings can possibly 
have : and the sense of what he has done for 
them is the strongest motive to obedience, On 
14 * 



166 

the other hand, the reprobates have nothing to 
complain of,„ since whatever God does, is just 
and right, and so it will appear to be (however 
darkly matters may appear to us now,) when we 
see him as he is, and know him even as we are 
known. 

And now, why should not this doctrine be 
preached and insisted upon in public ? a doctrine 
which is of e: press revelation ; a doctrine that 
makes wholly for the glory of God ; which con- 
duces in a most peculiar manner to the conver- 
sion, comfort, and sanctification of the elect : 
and leaves even the ungodly themselves without 
excuse ! 

But perhaps you may still be inclined to ques- 
tion, Whether predestination be indeed a scrip- 
ture doctrine. If so, let me by way of sample 
beg you to consider the following declarations, 
1. Of Christ, 2. Of his Apostles. 

Mat. xi. " If the mighty works that have been 
done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon, 
they would have repented," &c. whence it is evi- 
dent that the Tyrians and Sidonians, at least the 
majority of them, died in a state of impeni- 
tency; but that, if God had given them the 
same means of grace afforded to Israel, they 
would not have died impenitent : yet these means 
were not granted them«T How can this be ac- 
counted for ? only on the single principle of 
peremptory predestination, flowing from the 
sovereign will of God. No wonder then^ 
that our Lord concludes that chapter with 
these remarkable words, " I thank thee* Holy 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou 
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, 
and hast revealed them unto babes : even so, Fa- 
ther ; for so it seemed good in thy sight" Where 
Christ thanks the Father for doing that very 



167 

thing which Arminians exclaim against as unjust, 
and censure as partial ! 

Mat. xii. " To you it is given to know the 
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them 
it is not given." 

Mat. xx. 23. " To sit on my right hand, and 
on my left, is not mine to give, *M* «'*• vl**!***** 
Von ry «-«7^®- ^, except to them for whom it hath 
been prepared by my Father :" q> d. Salvation is 
not a precarious thing : the seats in glory were 
disposed of long ago in my Father's intention and 
destination : I can only assign them to such per- 
sons as they were prepared for in his decree. 

Mat. xxii. " Many are called, but few 
chosen :" i. e. All who live under the sound of 
the gospel will not be saved ; but those only who 
are elected unto life. 

Mat. xxiv. " For the elect's sake, those days 
shall be shortened :" and ibid. " If it were pos- 
sible, they should deceive the very elect :" where 
it is plain Christ teaches two things ; 1. That 
there is a certain number of persons who are 
elected to grace and glory ,• and 2. That it is ab- 
solutely impossible for these to be deceived into 
total or final apostacy. 

Mat. xxv. "-Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world." 

Mark xi. " Unto you it is given to know the 
mystery of the kingdom of God : but to them 
that are without," i. e. out of the pale of elec- 
tion, " all these things are done in parables j 
that, seeing, they may see, and not perceive ; 
and hearing, they may hear, and not understand i 
lest at any time they should be converted, and 
their sins should be forgiven them." 

Luke x« " Rejoice, because your names are 
written m heaven." 



168 

Luke xii. " It is your Father's good pleasure 
to give you the kingdom." 

Luke xvii. u One shall be taken and the other 
shall be left." 

John vi. " All that the Father hath given me, 
shall come unto me ;" as much as to say, These 
shall, but the rest cannot. 

John viii. u He that is of God heareth God's 
words ; ye therefore hear them not because ye 
are not of God :" not chosen of him. 

John x. " Ye believe not, because ye are not 
of my sheep." 

John xv. " Ye have not chosen me, but I have 
chosen you." 

I come now, 2. To the Apostles. 

John xii. 37, 40. " They believed not on him, 
that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be 
fulfilled which he spake ; Lord, who hath be- 
lieved our report ? and to whom hath the arm of 
the Lord been revealed ? Therefore they could 
not believe, because Esaias said again, He hath 
blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts^ 
that they should not see with their eyes, nor un- 
derstand with their hearts, and be converted, and 
I should heal them." Without certain prescience 
there could be no prophecy ; and without predes- 
tination no certain prescience Therefore, in or* 
der to the accomplishment of prophecy, prescience, 
and predestination, we are expressly told that 
these persons could not believe, #* v^vvmIo, they 
were not able ; it was out of their power, In 
short, there is hardly a page in St. John's gospel 
which does not either expressly or implicitly 
make mention of election and reprobation. 

St. Peter says of Judas, Acts i. u Men and 
brethren, the scriptures must needs have been 
fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of 
David, spake before concerning Judas," So ver* 



. 169 

23. " That he might go to his own place ; w to 
the place of punishment appointed for him. 

Acts ii. a Him, being delivered by the deter- 
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye 
have taken, and with wicked hands have cruci- 
fied and slain." 

Acts iv. " Herod, and Pontius Pilate, and the 
Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered 
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy 
counsel determined before to be done : ^o^ice 
yeve-TB-cci, predestinated should come to pass." 

Acts xiii. w And as many as were ordained to 
eternal life believed :" rereca-^svot, designed, desti- 
ned, or appointed unto life. 

Concerning the apostle Paul what shall I say ? 
every one that has read his epistles knows that 
they teem with predestination from beginning to 
end. # I shall only give one or two passages : andi 
begin with that famous chain, Rom. viii. u Whom 
he did foreknow (or forelove, for, to know often 
signifies in scripture to love) he also did predes- 
tinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, 
that he might be the firstborn among many bre- 
thren :" that as in all things else, so in the busi- 
ness of election, Christ might have the pre-emi- 
nence ; he being first chosen as a Saviour, and 
they in him to be saved by him : " moreover^ 



* A friend of mine who has a large property in Ireland, 
was conversing one day with a popish tenant of his upon re- 
ligion. Among other points they discussed the practice of 
having public prayers in an unknown tongue My friend took 
down' a New Testament from his book-case, and read part of 
1 Cor. xiv. When he had finished, the poor zealous papist 
rose up from his chair, and said with great vehemence, " I 
verily believe St. Paul was an heretic" 

Can the person who carefully reads the epistles of that 
great apostle doubt of his having a thorough-paced firedes* 
tinarian ? 



170 

whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; 
and whom he called, them he also justified ; and 
whom he justified, them he also glorified." 

The 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters of the same 
epistle are professed dissertations on, and illus- 
trations of, the doctrine of God's decrees ; and 
contain likewise a solution of the principal objec- 
tions brought against that doctrine. 

Gal. i. u Who separated me from my mother's 
womb, and called me by his grace." 

The first chapter of Ephesians treats of little 
else but election and predestination. 

2 Thess. ii. After observing that the repro- 
bates perish wilfully, the apostle, by a stri- 
king transition, addresses himself to the elect 
Thessalonians, saying, " But we are bound to 
give thanks unto God always for you, brethren, 
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the 
beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanc- 
tification of the Spirit and belief of the truth*" 

2 Tim. i. " Who hath saved us, and called us 
with an holy calling, not according to our works, 
but according to his own purpose and grace, 
which was given us in Christ before the world 
began." 

St. Jude, on the other hand, describes the re- 
probate as " ungodly men, who were of old fore- 
ordained to this condemnation." 

Another apostle makes this peremptory decla- 
ration ; " Who stumble at the word, being diso- 
bedient, whereunto also they were appointed : 
but ye are a chosen generation, [yevog sxXexrov, an 
elect race] a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a 
peculiar people, Xo>,&> «$ fl-^/sro^o-rfy, a people pur- 
chased to be his peculiar property and posses- 
sion, 1 Pet. ii. 8, 9. To all which may be added, 

Rev. xvii. 8. u Whose names were not written in 
the book of life from the foundation of the world." 



m 

All these texts are but as an handful to the har* 
vest ; and yet are both numerous and weighty- 
enough to decide the point with any who pay the 
least deference to scripture authority. And let 
it be observed, that Christ and his apostles deli- 
vered these matters, not to some privileged per- 
sons only, but to all at large who had ears to 
hear, and eyes to read. Therefore it is incum- 
bent on every faithful minister to tread in their 
steps by doing likewise : nor is that minister a 
faithful one, faithful to Christ, to truth, and to 
souls, who keeps back any part of the counsel of 
God, and buries those doctrines in silence which 
he is commanded to preach upon the house-tops. 

The great St. Austin, in his valuable treatise 
De Bono Persever. effectually obviates the objec- 
tions of those who are for burying the doctrine 
of predestination in silence. He shews that it 
ought to be publicly taught ; describes the neces- 
sity and usefulness of preaching it ; and points 
out the manner of doing it to edification. And 
since some persons have condemned St. Austin, 
by bell, book, and candle, for his steadfast at- 
tachment to, and nervous, successful defences of, 
the decrees of God, let us hear what Luther, that 
great light in the church, thought respecting the 
argument before us. 

Erasmus (in most other respects a Very excel- 
lent man) affected to think that it was of danger- 
ous consequence to propagate the doctrine of 
predestination, either by preaching or writing. 
His words are these : " What can be more use- 
less than to publish this paradox to the world ? 
namely, that whatever we do, is done not by vir- 
tue of our own free will, but in a way of neces- 
sity, &c. What a wide gap does the publication 
of this tenet open among men for the commis- 
sion of all ungodliness J What wicked person 



m 

^vill reform his life ? Who will dare to believe 
himself a favourite of heaven ? Who will fight 
against his own corrupt inclinations ? Therefore, 
where is either the need or the utility of spread- 
ing these notions from whence so many evils 
seem to flow ?" 

To which Luther replies : " If, my Erasmus, 
you consider these paradoxes (as you term them) 
to be no more than the inventions of men, why are 
you so extravagantly heated on the occasion t In 
that case your arguments affect not me ; for there 
is no person now living in the world, who is a 
more avowed enemy to the doctrines of men 
than myself. But, if you believe the doctrines 
In debate between us to be, as indeed they are, 
the doctrines of God, you must have bid adieu to 
all sense of shame and decency thus to oppose 
them. I will not ask, Whither the modesty of 
Erasmus is fled ? but, which is much more im- 
portant, Where, alas ! are your fear and rever- 
ence of the Deity, when you roundly declare, 
that this branch of truth, which he has revealed 
from heaven, is at best useless, and unnecessary 
to be known ? What ! shall the glorious Creator 
be taught by you, his creature, what is fit to be 
preached, and what to be suppressed? Is the 
adorable God so very defective in wisdom and 
prudence as not to know, till you instruct him, 
what would be useful, and what pernicious ? or 
could not he, whose understanding is infinite, 
foresee previous to his revelation of this doctrine, 
what would be the consequences of his revealing 
it, till those consequences were pointed out by 
you ? You cannot, you dare not say this. If, 
then, it was the divine pleasure to make known 
these things in his word, and to bid his messen- 
gers publish them abroad, and leave the conse- 
quences of their so doing to the wisdom and pro* 



173 

vidence of Kim, in whose name they speak, and 
whose message they declare, who art thou, O 
Erasmus, that thou shouldest reply against God, 
and say to the Almighty, What doest thou ? St* 
Paul, discoursing of God, declares peremptorily, 
Whom he will he hardeneth : and again, God 
willing to shew his wrath, &c. And the apostle 
did not write this to have it stifled among few per~ 
sons, and buried in a corner; but wrote it to the 
Christians at Rome ; which was in effect bring- 
ing this doctrine upon the stage of the whole 
world, stamping an universal imprimatur upon it* 
and publishing it to believers at large throughout 
the earth. What can sound harsher in the uncir- 
cumcised ears of carnal men, than those words 
of Christ, Many are called, but few chosen ? and 
elsewhere, I know whom I have chosen. Now, 
these and similar assertions of Christ and his 
apostles, are the very positions which you, O 
Erasmus, brand as useless and hurtful. You 
object, " If these things are so, who will endea- 
vour to amend his life ?" I answer ; Without 
the Holy host no man can amend his life to 
purpose. Ref ormation is but varnished^^ypo- 
crisy unless it proceed from ~grace. The elect 
ahlTTKH^^pTous^ Spirit of 

Tk>d : and those of mankind who are not amend- 
ed by him will perish- — You ask moreover, Who 
will dare to believe himself a favourite of hea- 
ven f I answer ; It is not in man's own power to 
believe himself such upon just grounds, till he is 
enabled from above. But the elect shall be so 
enabled : they shall believe themselves to be what 
indeed they are. As for the rest, who are not en- 
dued with faith, they shall perish; raging and blas- 
pheming as you do now. But, say you, These 
doctrines open a door to ungodliness. I answer ; 
Whatever door they may open to the impious and 
15 



174 

prophane, yet they open a door of righteousness to 
the elect and holy, and shew them the way to hea- 
ven, $nd the path of access unto God. Yet you 
would have us abstain from the mention of these 
grand doctrines, and leave our people in the dark 
as to their election of God : the consequence of 
which would be, that every man would bolster him- 
self up with a delusive hope of share in that salva- 
tion which is supposed to lie open to all ; and thus 
genuine humility, and the practical fear of God, 
would be kicked out of doors. This would be a pret- 
ty way indeed of stopping up the gap Erasmus com- 
plains of ! Instead of closing up the door of licen- 
tiousness, as is falsely pretended, it would be in 
fact opening a gulf into the nethermost hell. Still 
you urge, Where is either the necessity, or util- 
ity,' of preaching predestination? God himself 
teaches it, and commands us to teach itj and that 
is answer enough. We are not to arraign the 
Deity, and bring the motives of his will to the 
test of human scrutiny ; but simply to revere 
both him and it* He, who alone is all-wise and 
all-just, can in reality (however things appear to 
us) do wrong to no man ; neither can he do any 
thing unwisely or rashly. And this considera- 
tion will suffice to silence all the objections of 
truly religious persons. However, let us for ar- 
gument's sake go a step farther. I will venture 
to assign over and above, two very important 
reasons, why these doctrines should be publicly 
taught : 1. For the humiliation of our pride, and 
the manifestation of divine grace. God hath as- 
suredly promised his favour to the truly humble. 
By truly humble, I mean those who are endued 
with repentance, and despair of saving them- 
selves ; for a man can never be said to be really 
penitent and humble, till he is made to know that 
his salvation is not suspended in any measure 



175 

whatever on his own strength, machinations, en- 
deavours, free-will, or works ; but entirely de- 
pends on the free pleasure, purpose, determina- 
tion, and efficiency of another; even of God 
alone. Whilst a man is persuaded that he has it 
in his power to contribute any thing, be it ever so 
little, to his own salvation, he remains in carnal 
confidence ; he is not a self-despairer, and there- 
fore he is not duly humbled before God ; so far 
from it, that he hopes some favourable juncture 
or opportunity will offer, when he may be able to 
lend an helping hand to the business of his salva- 
tion. — On the contrary, whoever is truly convin- 
ced that the whole work depends singly and abso- 
lutely on the will of God, who alone is the au- 
thor and finisher of salvation ; such a person de- 
spairs of all self-assistance ; he renounces his own 
will, and his own strength ; he waits and prays for 
the operation of God ; nor waits and prays in vain. 
For the elect's sake, therefore, these doctrines are 
to be preached, that the chosen of God, being hum- 
bled by the knowledge of his truths, self-emptied 
and sunk as it were into nothing in his presence, 
may be saved in Christ with eternal glory. This, 
then, is one inducement to the publication of the 
doctrine ; that the penitent may be made acquaint- 
ed with the promise of grace, plead it in prayer 
to God, and receive it as their own. 2. The na- 
ture of the Christian faith requires it. Faith has 
to do with things not -seen. — And this is one of 
the highest degrees of faith, steadfastly to be- 
lieve that God is infinitely merciful, though he 
saves (comparatively) but few, and condemns so 
many; and that he is strictly just, though of 
his own will he makes such numbers of mankind 
necessarily liable to damnation. Now, these are 
some of the unseen things whereof faith is the 
evidence. Whereas, was it in my power to com- 



ire 

^rehend them, or clearly to make out, how God 
Is both inviolably just and infinitely merciful, not- 
withstanding the display of wrath and seeming 
inequality in his dispensations respecting the re- 
probate ; faith would have little or nothing to 
do. But now, since these matters cannot be ade- 
quately comprehended by us in the present state 
of imperfection^ there is room for the exercise of 
faith. The truths, therefore, respecting predes- 
tination in all its branches, should be taught and 
published ; they, no less than the other mysteries 
of Christian doctrine, being proper objects of 
faith on the part of God's people. 5 *^ 

With Luther the excellent Bucer agrees ; par- 
ticularly on Eph. i. where his words are, " There 
are some who affirm that election is not to be 
mentioned publicly to the people. But they 
judge wrongly. The blessings which God be- 
stows on man are not to be suppressed, but in- 
sisted and enlarged upon ; and if so, surely the 
blessing of predestination unto life, which is the 
greatest blessing of all, should not be passed 
over." And, a little after he adds, u Take away 
the remembrance and consideration of our elec- 
tion, and then, good God ! what weapons have 
we left us wherewith to resist the temptations of 
Satan ? As often as he assaults our faith (which 
he is frequently doing) we must constantly, and 
without delay, have recourse to our election in 
Christ as to a city of refuge. Meditation upon 
the Father's appointment of us to eternal life is 
the best antidote against the evil surmisings of 
doubtfulness and remaining unbelief. If we are 
entirely void of all hope and assurance respect- 



* Lutherus, De Serr Arbitr. in response ad wit prscfat- 
Eras mi. 



177 

uig our interest in this capital privilege, what 
solid and comfortable expectation can we enter- 
tain of future blessedness ? How can we look 
upon God as our gracious Father, and upon 
Christ as our unchangeable Redeemer ? without 
which, I see not how we can ever truly love God : 
and if we have no true love towards him, how 
can we yield acceptable obedience to him ! There- 
fore, those persons are not to be heard who 
would have the doctrine of election laid (as it 
were) asleep, and seldom or never make its ap* 
pearance in the congregations of the faithful. " 

To what these great men have so nervously 
advanced, permit me to add, that the doctrine of 
predestination is not only useful, but absolutely 
necessary to be taught or known. For, 

1. Without it we cannot form just and becom^ 
ing ideas of God. Thus, unless he certainly 
foreknows, and foreknew from everlasting, all 
things that should come to pass, his understand- 
ing would be finite : and a Deity of limited 
understanding, is no Deity at all. Again, we 
cannot suppose him to have foreknown any thing 
which he had not previously decreed ; without 
setting up a series of causes, extra Deum, and 
making the Deity dependent for-a great part of 
the knowledge he has, upon the will and works, 
of his creatures, and upon a combination of cir- 
cumstances exterior to himself, ., Therefore, his 
determinate plan-, counsel, and purpose, (i, e, his 
own predestination of causes and effects, is the 
only basis of his foreknowledge : which fore- 
knowledge could neither be certain, nor inde- 
pendent, but as founded on his own antecedent, 
decree. 2. He alone is entitled to th^ name of 
true God, who governs all things, and without 
whose will (either efficient or permissive ) nothing 
is or can be. done, And such is the God, of the 
15..* 



ITS 

scriptures : against whose will not a sparrow can 
die, nor an hair fall from our heads, Mat. x. Now 
what is predestination, but the determining will 
of God? I defy the subtilest semi-pelagian in 
the world to form or convey a just and wor- 
thy notion of the Supreme Being, without ad- 
mitting him to be the great cause of all causes 
else, himself dependent on none : who willed 
from eternity, how he would act in time, and 
settled a regular determinate scheme of what he 
would dp, and permit to be done from the begin- 
ning to the consummation of the world. A con- 
trary view of the Deity is as inconsistent with 
reason itself, and with the very religion of na- 
ture, as it is with the decisions of revelation. 
Nor can we rationally conceive of an indepen- 
dent, all-perfect first cause without allowing him 
to be, 3. Unchangeable in his purposes. His de- 
crees and his essence coincide : consequently, a 
change in those would infer an alteration in this. 
Nor can that being be the true God, whose will is 
variable, fluctuating, and indeterminate : for his 
will is himself willing. A Deity without decrees 
and decrees without immutability, are, of all in- 
ventions that ever entered the heart of man, the 
most absurd. 4. Without predestination to plan, 
and without providence to put that plan in exe- 
cution, what becomes of God's omnipotence ? It 
vanishes into air. It becomes a mere non-entity. 
For what sort of omnipotence is that which may 
be baffled and defeated by the very creatures it 
has made ! Very different is the idea of this at- 
tribute suggested by the Psalmist, Psalm cxiii. 
u Whatsoever the Lord willed, that did he in hea- 
ven and in earth, and in the sea, and in all deep pla- 
ces :" i. e. He not only made them when he would, 
but orders them when made. 5. He alone is the 
true God, according to scripture representation . 



179 

who saves by his mere mercy and voluntary 
grace, those whom he hath chosen, and righteous- 
ly condemns (for their sins) those whom he 
thought fit to pass by. But, without predestina- 
tion there could be no such thing, either as sove- 
reign mercy, or voluntary grace. For, after all, 
what is predestination but his decree to save 
some of his mere goodness : and to condemn 
others in his just judgment? — Now, it is most 
evident that the scripture doctrine of predestina- 
tion, is the clearest mirror wherein to see and 
contemplate these essential attributes of God* 
Here they all shine forth in their fulness of har- 
mony and lustre. Deny predestination and you 
deny (though perhaps not intentionally, yet by 
necessary consequence,) the adorable perfections 
of the Godhead : in concealing that, you 
throw a vail over these ; and in preaching that 
you hold up these to the comfort, the establish- 
ment, and the admiration of the believing world. 
IL Predestination is to be preached, because 
the grace of God (which stands opposed to all 
human worthiness) cannot be maintained without 
it. The excellent St. Austin makes use of this 
very argument. " If," says he, " these two 
privileges" [namely, faith itself and final perse- 
verance in faith] " are the gifts of God ; and if 
God foreknew on whom he would bestow these 
gifts ; (and who can doubt of so evident a truth ?) 
it is necessary for predestination to be preached 
as the sure anil invincible bulwark of that true 
grace of God, which is given to men without 
any consideration of merit." # Thus argued St, 
Austin against the Pelagians, who taught, that 
grace is offered to all men alike ; That God, for 



* De Bono Per sever, cap. 21* 



180 

his part, equally wills the salvation of all ; and 
thai it is in the power of man's free will to ac- 
cept or reject the grace and salvation so offered. 
Which string of errors do, as Austin justly ob- 
serves, centre in this grand point, gratiam secun- 
dum nostra merita dart ; that God's grace is not 
free, but the fruit of man's desert. Now the doc- 
trine of predestination batters down this delusive 
Babel cf free will and merit. It teaches us that 
if we do indeed will and desire to lay hold on 
Christ and salvation by him, this will and desire 
are the effect of God's secret purpose and effect- 
ual operation : for he it is who worketh in us, 
both to will and to do of his own good pleasure ; 
that he that glorieth should glory in the Lordi 
There neither is nor can be any medium between 
predestinating grace, and salvation by human 
merit. We must believe and preach one or the 
other: for they can never stand together. No 
attempts to mingle and reconcile these two incom- 
patible opposites can ever succeed ; the apostle 
himself being judge; a If," says he, u it [namely 
election] be by grace, then is it no more of works ; 
otherwise grace is no more grace : but if it be of 
works, then is it no more grace : otherwise work 
is no more work, Rom. xi. 6* Exactly agreear 
ble to which is that of St. Austin : u Either pre- 
destination is to be preached as expressly as the 
scriptures deliver it, viz. That with regard to 
those whom he hath chosen, the gifts and calling 
of God are without repentance ; or we must 
roundly declare as the Pelagians do, that grace is 
given according to merit."f Most certain it is 
that the doctrine of gratuitous justification 
through Christ, can only be supported on that cf 



f Be Bqiio Perse ver. cap. 16* 



181 

gratuitious predestination in Christ i since the 
latter is the cause and foundation of the former* 

III. By the preaching of predestination man 
is duly humbled, and God alone is exalted : hu- 
man pride is levelled and the Divine glory shines 
untarnished because unrivalled. This the sacred 
writers positively declare. Let St. Paul be 
spokesman for the rest, (Eph. i. 5, 6.) Having 
predestinated us-— -To the praise of the glory of 
his grace* But how is it possible for us to render 
unto God the praises due to the glory of his grace 
without laying this threefold foundation ? 1. That 
whosoever are, or shall be saved, are saved by his 
alone grace in Christ, in consequence of his eter- 
nal purpose, passed before they had done any 
one good thing. 2. That what good thing so- 
ever is begun to be wrought in our souls (whe- 
ther it be illumination of the understanding, rec- 
titude of will, or purity of affections,) was be- 
gun altogether of God alone ; by whose invinci- 
ble agency grace is at first conferred, afterwards 
maintained, and finally crowned. 3. That the 
work of internal salvation (the sweet and certain 
prelude to eternal glory) was not only begun in 
us of his mere grace ; but that its continuance, its 
progress, and increase are no less free, and 
totally unmerited, than its first original donation* 
Grace alone makes the elect gracious ; grace 
alone keeps them gracious ; and the same grace 
alone will render hem everlastingly glorious in 
the heaven of heavens. 

Conversion and salvation must in the very na- 
ture of things, be wrought and effected either by 
ourselves alone ;— or, by ourselves and God to- 
gether ; — or solely by God himself. The Pelagi- 
ans were for the first. The Arminians are for 
the second. True believers are for the last; 
because the last hypothesis, and that only, is 



182 

built on the strongest evidence of scripture, rea- 
son, and experience ; it most effectually hides 
pride from man, and sets the crown of undivided 
praise upon the head, or rather casts it at the 
feet of that glorious triune God, who worketh all 
in all. But this is a crown which no sinners 
ever yet cast before the throne of God, who were 
not first led into the transporting views of 
his gracious decree to save freely and of his own 
will the people of his eternal love. Exclude, 
therefore, O Christian, the article of sovereign 
predestination from thy ministry, or from thy 
faith ; and acquit thyself, if thou art able, from 
the charge of robbing God. 

When God does by the omnipotent exertion of 
his Spirit, effectually call any of mankind, in 
time, to the actual knowledge of himself in 
Christ; when he likewise goes on to sanctify the 
sinners he has called*- ms&iiJg them to excel in 
all good works, dtftd to persevere in the love and 
resemblance of God to their lives end : the ob- 
serving part of the unawakened world may be 
apt to conclude that the converted persons might 
receive such measure of grace from God, because 
of some previous qualifications, good disposi- 
tions, or pious desires, and internal preparations, 
discovered in them by the all-seeing eye ; which, 
if true, w r ould indeed transfer the praise from 
the Creator, and consign it to the creature. But 
the doctrine of predestination, absolute, free, un- 
conditional predestination, here steps in, and 
gives God his own. It lays the axe to the root 
of human boasting, and cuts down (for which 
reason the natural man hates it) every legal, 
evirry independent, every self-righteous imagina- 
tion, that would exalt itstlf against the grace of 
Go | and the glory of Christ, It tells us, That Gcd 
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in his 



183 

Son, according as he hath chosen us in him, be- 
fore the foundation of the world, in order to our 
being afterwards made holy and blameless before 
him in love, Eph. i. Of course, whatever truly 
and spiritually good thing is found in any person, 
it is the special gift and work of God : given 
and wrought in consequence of eternal, unmerit- 
ed election to grace and glory. Whence the 
greatest saint cannot triumph over the most aban- 
doned sinner, but is led to refer the entire praise 
of his salvation, both from sin and hell, to the 
mere good will and sovereign purpose of God, 
who hath graciously made him to differ from 
that world which lieth in wickedness. Such be- 
ing the tendency of this blessed doctrine, how 
injurious, both to God and man, would the sup- 
pression of it be ? Well does St. Austin argue : 
u As the duties of piety ought to be preached 
up, that he who hath ears to hear may be instruct- 
ed how to worship God aright ; and as chastity 
should be publicly recommended and enforced, 
that he that hath ears to hear may know how to 
possess himself in sanctification. And as chari- 
ty moreover should be inculcated from the pul- 
pit, that he who hath ears to hear may be exci- 
ted to the ardent love of God, and his neigh- 
bour; in like manner, should God's predestina- 
tion of his favours be openly preached, that he 
who hath ears to hear may learn to glory, not in 
himself but in the Lord." ^ 

IV. Predestination should be publicly taught 
and insisted upon, in order to confirm and 
strengthen true believers in the certainty and con- 



De Bono Persever. cap. 20. 



184 

ftdence of their salvation.* For, when regene- 
rate persons are told, and are enabled to believe, 
that the glorification of the elect is so assuredly 
fixed in God's eternal purpose, that it is impossi- 
ble for any of them to perish ; and when the re- 
generate are led to consider themselves as actu- 
ally belonging to this elect body of Christ; what 
can establish, strengthen, and settle their faith 
like this ? Nor is such a faith presumptuous ; for 
every converted man may and ought to conclude 
himself elected : since God the Spirit renews 
those only who were chosen by God the Father, 
and redeemed by God the Son. This is an hope 
which maketh not ashamed, nor can possibly 
issue in disappointment, if entertained by those 
into whose hearts the love of God is poured 
forth by the Holy Ghost given unto them, Rom* 

V. 5 a 

The holy triumph and assurance resulting 
from this blessed view, are expressly warranted 
by the apostle, Rom* viii. where he deduces ef- 
fectual calling from a prior predestination ; and 
infers the certainty of final salvation from effect- 
ual calling. Whom he did predestinate^ them he 
also called ; and whom he called, them he also 
justified ; and whom he justified, them he also 
glorified. How naturally from such premises, 
does the apostle add. Who shall lay any thing 



* Our venerable reformers in the 17th of our xxxix arti- 
cles, make the very same observation, and nearly in the same 
words : — " The godly consideration of predestination and 
our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeak- 
able comforts to godly persons ; — because it doth greatly es- 
tablish and confirm their faith of everlasting salvation? to b" 
enjoyed through Christ, &c " 



185 

to the charge of God's elect ? Who, and where 
is he that condemneth them ? Who and what 
shall separate us from the love of Christ ? — in 
all these things we are, and shall be more than 
conquerors through him who hath loved us : for 
I am persuaded [W?rf<0yc*/,# I am most clearlv 
and assuredly confident,] that neither death nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. So, elsewhere, The 
foundation of the Lord, i. e. his decree or pur- 
pose, according to election standeth sure ; hav- 
ing this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are 
his : which is particularly noted by the apostle, 
lest true believers might be discouraged, and be- 
gin to doubt of their own certain perseverance 
to salvation, either from a sense of their remain- 
ing imperfections, or from observing the open 
apostacy of unregenerate professors, 2 Tim. if. — 
How little obliged, therefore, are the flock of 
Christ to those persons, who would, by stifling 
the mention of predestination, expunge the sense 
and certainty of everlasting blessedness from the 
list of Christian privileges ! 

V. Without the doctrine of predestination we 
cannot enjoy a lively sight and experience of 
God's special love and mercy towards us in 
Christ Jesus. ^ Blessings not peculiar, but confer- 
red indiscriminately, on every man without ex- 
ception, would neither be a proof of peculiar lov^ 
m the donor, nor calculated to excite neculiar" 



* Certus sum, Ar. Montan. Cert fide persuasum miln 
babeo, Erasra. Victa omni dubitatione Bengel. 1 am as- 
sured, Dutch version. 



16 



186 

wonder and gratitude in the receiver. For in- 
stance ; rain from heaven, though an invaluable 
benefit, is not considered as an argument of God's 
special and peculiar favour to some individuals 
above others : and why i because it falls on 
all alike : as much on the rude wilderness, and 
the barren rock, as on the cultivated garden, 
and the fruitful field. — But the blessing of elec- 
tion, somewhat like the Sibylline books, rises in 
value proportionally to the fewness of its objects. 
So that when we recollect that in the view of 
God (to whom all things are at once present,) 
the whole mass of mankind was considered as 
justly liable to condemnation on account of origin- 
al and actual iniquity ; his selecting some indi- 
viduals from among the rest, and graciously set- 
ting them apart in Christ for salvation, both from 
sin and punishment, were such acts of sovereign 
goodness, as exhibit the exceeding greatness, and 
the entire freeness of his love, in the most 
awful, amiable, and humbling light. In order 
then, that the special grace of God may shine, 
predestination must be preached ; even the eter- 
nal and immutable predestination of his people 
to faith and everlasting life* " From those who 
are left under the power of guilt," says St. Aus- 
tin, a the person who is delivered from it may 
learn what he too must have suffered, had not 
grace stept in to his relief. And, if it was grace 
that interposed, it could not be the reward of 
man's merit, but the free gift of God's gratuitous 
goodness. Some, however, call it unjust for 
one to be delivered, while another, though no 
more guilty than the former, is condemned : If 
it be just to punish one, it would be but justice 
to punish both. I grant that both might have 
been justly pufiished. Let us therefore give 
thanks unto God our Saviour, for not inflicting 



187 

that vengeance on us, which from the condemna- 
tion of our fellow-sinners we may conclude to 
have been our desert no less than theirs. Had 
they as well as we been ransomed from their 
captivity, we could have framed but little concep- 
tion of the penal wrath due in strictness of jus- 
tice to sin : and on the other hand, had none of 
the fallen race been ransomed and set at liberty, 
how could divine grace have displayed the rich- 
es of its liberality^ ?" The same evangelical fa- 
ther delivers himself elsewhere to the same ef- 
fect : " Hence, 3 ' says he, " appears the great- 
ness of that grace by which so many are freed 
from condemnation : and they may form some 
idea of the misery due to themselves, from the 
dreadfulness of the punishment that awaits the 
rest. Whence those who rejoice, are taught to 
rejoice, not in their own merits (qua? paria esse 
vident damnatis, for they see that they have no 
more merit than the damned,) but in the Lord."f 
Hence results, 

VI. Another reason, nearly connected with 
the former, for the unreserved publication of this 
doctrine : viz. That from a sense of God's pecu- 
liar, eternal, and unalterable love to his people, 
their hearts maybe en-flamed to love him in return. 
Slender indeed will be my motives to the love of 
God, on the supposition that my love to him is 
before hand with his to me ; and that the very 
continuance of his favour is suspended on the 
weathercock of my variable will, or the flimsy 
thread of my imperfect affection. Such a preca- 
rious dependent love were unworthy of God ; 
and calculated to produce but a scanty and cold 



* Epist. 105. ad Sixt. Presb. 

f De Predest. Sanctor. lib. 1. cap. 9. 



188 

veciprocation of love from man* At the happi- 
est of times, and in the best of frames below, 
our love to God is but a spark (though small and 
quivering, yet inestimably precious, because di- 
vinely kindled, fanned and maintained in the 
soul, and an earnest of better to come :) where- 
as love, as it glows in God, is an immense sun, 
which shone without beginning, and shall shine 
without end. Is it probable, then, that the spark 
of human love should give being to the sun of 
divine ? and, that the lustre and warmth of this 
should depend on the glimmering of that? yet 
so it must be if p2*edestination is not true : and 
so it must be represented if predestination is not 
taught,— Would you therefore know what it is 
to love God as your Father, Friend, and Saviour; 
vcu must fall clown before his electing mercy. 
Till then you are only hovering about in quest of 
true felicity. But you will never find the door, 
much less can you enter into rest, till you are en- 
abled to love him because he hath first loved you, 
1 John iv. 19. 

This being the case, it is evident, That with- 
out taking predestination into the account, genu- 
ine morality and the performance of truly good 
works will suffer, starve, and die away. Love 
to God is the very fuel of acceptable obedience* 
Withdraw the fuel, and the flame expires. But 
the fuel of holy affection (if scripture, experience 
-and observation, are allowed to carry any convic- 
tion.) can only be cherished, maintained, and in- 
creased in the heart, by the sense and apprehen- 
sion of God's predestinating love to us in Christ 
Jesus. Now our obedience to God will always 
hold proportion to our love. If the one be re- 
laxed and feeble, the other cannot be alert and 
vigorous. And electing goodness being the 
very life and soul of the former; the latter even 



189 

good works, must flourish or decline in proportion 
as election is glorified or obscured. Hence arises a 

Vllth Argument for the preaching of predes- 
tination : namely, that by it we may be excited to 
the practice of universal godliness. The know- 
ledge of God's love to you will make you an ar- 
dent lover of God : and the more love you have 
to God the more will you excel in all the duties 
and offices of love.— Add to this, that the scrip- 
ture view of predestination includes the means, 
as well as the end. Christian predestinarians are 
for keeping together what God hath joined. He 
who is for attaining the end, without going to it 
through the means, is a self-deluding enthusiast. 
He, on the other hand, who carefully and con- 
scientiously uses the means of salvation as steps 
to the end, is the true Calvinist. Now, eternal 
life being that to which the elect are ultimately 
destined; faith (the effect of saving grace,) and 
sanctification (the effect of faith,) are blessings to 
which the elect are intermediately appointed. 
¥ According as he hath chosen us in him before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be 
holy and without blame before him in love," 
Eph. i. 4. " We are his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God 
hath before ordained, that we should walk in 
them," Eph. ii. 10. — u Knowing, brethren belo- 
ved, your election of God : — Ye became follow- 
ers of us and of the Lord," 1 Thess. i. 4. 6.— 
" God hath chosen you to salvation through, 
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth," 
2 Thess. ii. 13. — Elect, according to the fore- 
knowledge [or ancient love] of God the Father 9 
through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedi- 
ence," 1 Pet. i. 2. 

Nor is salvation (the appointed end of elec- 
tion) at all the less secure in itself (but the more 
16 * 



190 

so) for standing necessarily connected with the 
intervening means : seeing both these and that 
are inseparably joined, in order to the certain ac- 
complishment of that through these. It only 
demonstrates, that without regeneration of heart, 
and purity of life, the elect themselves are not 
led to heaven. But then it is incontestable from 
the whole current of scripture, that these inter- 
mediate blessings shall most infallibly be vouch- 
safed to every elect person in virtue of God's 
absolute covenant, and through the effectual 
agency of his almighty Spirit. Internal sanctifi- 
cation constitutes our meetness for the kingdom 
to which w^e were predestinated ; and a course of 
external righteousness is one of the grand eviden- 
ces, by which we make our election sure to our 
own present comfort and apprehension of it.* 

VIII. Unless predestination be preached, we 
shall want one great inducement to the exercise 
of brotherly kindness and charity. 

When a converted person is assured on one 
hand, that all whom God hath predestinated to 
eternal life, shall infallibly enjoy that eternal life 
to which they were chosen ; and, on the other 
hand, when he discerns the signs of election, not 
only in himself, but also in the rest of his fellow- 
believers, and concludes from thence (as in a 
judgment of charity he ought,) that they are as 



* 1 Pet. i. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and 
election /Sfc*/*v, undoubted; that is, to get some solid and in- 
contestable evidence of your predestination to life. — "Bc'caw^, 
is de quo fiducia concipitur ; is de quo nobis aliquid certo per- 
.Vviademus. Unde apud Thuc 3.Q£$ctt<& etfU, mlo 7rotyG-£tf 
certa fides habetur mihi, hoc focturum me esse. — Be£ctta$ y 
certo explorato. BeS ouxy.xi fidem facio; pro comperto habeo." 
Scap— So, s Afir/s fiu&ioL is an undoubting hope, 2. Cor. i- 7. 
And fi£ecti6T£a&> Xcty<&* is a more assured ar.d unquestion- 
able word of prophecy, 2 Pet. 1. 19< 



191 

really elected as himself, how must his heart 
glow with love to his Christian brethren ! How 
feelingly will he sympathize with them in their 
distresses ! How tenderly will he bear with their 
infirmities ? How readily will he relieve the for- 
mer, and how easily overlook the latter ! — no- 
thing will so effectually knit together the hearts 
of God's people in time as the belief of their 
having been written by name in one book of life 
from everlasting ; and the unshaken confidence 
of their future exaltation to one and the same 
state of glory above, will occasion the strongest 
cement of affection below. This was possibly 
one end of our Saviour's so frequently remind- 
ing his apostles of their election : namely, that 
from the sense of such an unspeakable blessing, 
in which they were all equally interested, they 
might learn to " love one another with pure 
hearts fervently ;" and cultivate on earth that 
holy friendship which they well knew from the 
immutability of God's decrees would be eternal- 
ly matured, to the highest perfection and refine- 
ment in heaven. St. Paul likewise might have 
some respect to the same amiable inference, 
when treating of the saints collectively, he uses 
those sweet and endearing expressions, He hath 
chosen us, He hath predestinated us, &c. that be- 
lievers, considering themselves as <n/vf*Aex7<>*, or co- 
elect in Christ, might be led to love each other 
with peculiar intenseness, as the spiritual chil- 
dren of one electing Father, brethren in grace, 
and joint-heirs of glory. — Did the regenerate of 
the present age but practically advert to the ever- 
lasting nearness in which they stand related to 
each other, how happy would be the effect ! 

Hence it appears, that since the preaching of 
predestination is thus evidently calculated to 
kindle and keep alive the twofold congenial flame 



192 

of love to God and love to man : it must by ne- 
cessary consequencexonduce 

To the advancement of universal obedience, 
and to the performance of every social and reli- 
gious duty :* which alone, was there nothing 
else to recommend it, would be a sufficient mo- 
tive to the public delivery of that important doc- 
trine. 

Lastly, without a due sense of predestination, 
we shall want the surest and the most powerful 
inducement to patience, resignation, and depend- 
ence on God, under every spiritual and temporal 
affliction. 

How sweet must the following considerations 
be to the distressed believer ! 1. There most cer- 
tainly exists an Almighty, all-wise and infinitely 



* Our excellent Bishop Davenant instances, particularly in 
the great religious duty of prayer. " The consideration of 
election," says this learned and evangelical prelate, " doth 
stir up the faithful to constancy in prayer : for having learnt 
that all good tending to salvation is prepared for them out of 
God's good pleasure, they are hereby encouraged to call for, 
and as it were, to draw down from heaven by their prayers 
those good things which from eternity were ordained for the 
elect — Moreover, the same spirit of adoption, who beareth 
witness to our spirit that we are God's chosen children, is also 
the spirit of prayer and supplication, and enflameth our hearts 
to call daily upon our heavenly Father. Those, therefore, 
who, from the certainty of predestination do pretend that the 
duty of prayer is superfluous, do plainly show that they are 
so far from having any certainty of their predestination, that 
they have not the least sense thereof. — To be slack and slug- 
gish in prayer is not the property of those who, by the testi- 
mony of God's Spirit, have got assurance of their election ; 
but rather of such as have either none or very small apprehen- 
sion thereof. For as soon as any one by believing doth con- 
ceive himself to be one of God's elect children, he earnestly 
desireth td procure unto himself by prayer those good things, 
which he believeth that God prepared for his children be- 
fore -he foundation of the world." Bp. Davenant's Animadr 
versions on an Arminian treatise, entitled God's Love to Man- 
kind, p. 526, & seq. 



193 

gracious God. — 2. He has given me in times 
past, and is giving me at present, (if I had but 
eyes to see it,) many and signal intimations of 
his love to me, both in a way of providence and 
grace. — 3. This love of his is immutable : he 
never repents of it, nor withdraws it. — 4. What- 
ever comes to pass in time is the result of his 
will from everlasting.— Consequently, 5. My af- 
flictions were a part of his original plan, and are 
all ordered in number, weight and measure. — 6. 
The very hairs of my head are every one count- 
ed by him : nor can a single hair fall to the 
ground but in consequence of his determinations 
Hence, 7. My distresses are not the result of 
chance, accident, or a fortuitious combination of 
circumstances : but, 8. The providential accom- 
plishment of God's purpose ; and 9. Designed 
to answer some wise and gracious ends. Nor, 
10. shall any affliction continue a moment longer 
than God sees meet. 11. He who brought me 
to it, has promised to support me under it, and 
to carry me through it. 12. All shall most as- 
suredly work together for his glory and my good. 
Therefore, 1 3. u The cup which my heavenly 
Father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink 
it r" Yes : I will in the strength he imparts even 
rejoice in tribulation : and using the means of 
possible redress which he hath, or may hereafter 
put into my hands, I will commit myself and the 
event to him, whose purpose cannot Be over- 
thrown, whose plan cannot be disconcerted, and 
who, whether I am resigned or not, will still go 
on to work all things after the counsel of his own 
will.* 



* The learned Lipsius thus writes to an unmarried friend, 
who appears to have referred himself to his judgment and 
direction ; Slvc uxor ducitur, sive o?nittitur 9 &c. Whether 



194 

Above all, when the suffering Christian takes 
his election into the account, and knows that 
he was by an eternal and immutable act of God 
appointed to obtain salvation through our Lord 



you marry or live single, you will still have something* or 
other to molest you : nor does the whole course of man's 
present sublunary life afford him a single draught cf joy, 
without a mixture of wormwood in the cup. This is the uni- 
versal and immutable law, which to resist, were no less vain 
than sinful and rebellious. As the wrestlers of old had their 
respective antagonists assigned them, not by their own choice, 
but by necessary lot ; in like manner, each of the human 
race has his peculiar destiny allotted to him by Providence, 
To conquer this is to endure it. All our strength in this 
warfare is to undergo the inevitable pressure. It is victory 
to yield ourselves to fate." Lips Epist miscell. cent. 1. ep- 
43. opor. torn. 2. p. 54. Edit. Vesaliens. 1675. 

About two years after, this celebrated Christian Seneca 
wrote as follows to the same person, (Theodore Leewius) 
who had married and just lost his wife in childbed ; Jain 
fatum quid ? Aeterna, an ceterno, in aternum, Dei Lex : what 
is fate ? God's everlasting ordinance : an ordinance which he 
settled in eternity, and for eternity : an ordinance which he 
can never repeal, disannul, or set aside, either in whole or in 
part. Now if this his decree be eternai, a retro and immove- 
able, quoad futurum : why does foolish man struggle and 
fight against that which must be ? Especially, seeing fate is 
thus the offspring of God, why does impious man murmur 
and complain ? you cannot justly find fauit with anything de- 
termined or done by him ; as though it were evil or severe : 
for he is all goodness and benevolence. Was you to define his 
nature, you could not do it more suitably than in those 
terms. — Is therefore your wife dead I debuit : it is right she 
should be so. But was it right that she should die, and at 
that very time, and by that very kind of death ! Most cer- 
tainly Lex ita lata : the decree so ordained it. The rest- 
less acumen of the human mind may sift and canvass the ap* 
pomtments of fate, but cannot alter tiem. Were we truly 
wise we should be implicitly submissive, and endure with 
willingness what we must endure, whether we be willing- or 
not. A due sense of our inability to reverse the disposals 
of Providence, and the consequent vanity of resisting them, 
would administer solid repose to our minds, and sheathe, if 
not remove the anguisi, of afRiction. And why should we 
even wish to resist ? Fate's supreme ordainer is not only the 



195 

3esus Christ; that, of course, he hath a city pre- 
pared tor him above, a building of God, an 
house not made with hands, but eternal in the 
Jieavens ; and that the heaviest sufferings of the 
present life are " not worthy to be compared 
with the glory which shall be revealed in the 
saints ; — what adversity can possibly befall us, 
which the assured hope of blessings like these 
will not infinitely overbalance ? 

" A comfort so divine, 
May trials well endure." 
However keenly afflictions might wound us on 
their first access ; yet, under the impression of 
such animating views, we should quickly come to 
ourselves again, and the arrows of tribulation 
would in a great measure become pointless. — 
Christians want nothing but absolute resignation 
to render them perfectly happy in every possible 
circumstance : and absolute resignation can only 
flow from an absolute belief, and an absolute 
acquiescence in God's absolute providence, 
founded on absolute predestination. — The apos- 
tle himself draws these conclusions to our hand, 
in Rom. viii. where, after having laid down as 
most undoubted axioms, the eternity and immu- 
tability of God's purposes ; he thus winds up the 
whole : " What shall we say then to these things, 
if God be for us, who can be against us ? — who 



all-wise God, but an all-gracious Father. Embrace every 
event as good and prosperous, though it may for the present 
carry an aspect of the reverse. Think you not that he loves 
and careth for us more and better than we for ourselves. 
But as the tenderest parent below doth oftentimes cross the 
inclinations of his children, with a view to do them good ; and 
obliges ihem both to do and to undergo many things against 
the bent of their wills, so does the great Parent of all." Ibid, 
epist. 61. p. 82. 



196 

shall separate U3 from the love of Christ ? shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, 
or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? — nay : in all 
these things we are more than conquerors, 
through him that loved us. 

Such, therefore, among others, being the uses, 
that arise from the faithful preaching, and the cor- 
dial reception of predestination ; may we venture 
to affirm, with Luther, hac ignorata doctrina, 
neqne Jide?n, neque ullwn Dei ciiltnm, consistere 
posse f that " Our faith, and all right worship of 
God, depend in no small degree, upon our know- 
ledge of that doctrine." 5 * 

The excellent Melancthon, in his first common 
places (which received the sanction of Luther's 
express approbation,) does, in the first chapter, 
which treats professedly of free will and pre- 
destination, set out with clearing and establishing 
the doctrine of God's decrees ; and then pro- 
ceeds to point out the necessity, and manifold 
usefulness of asserting and believing it. He even, 
goes so far as to affirm roundly, that u A right 
fear of God, and a true confidence in him, can 
be learned more assuredly, from no other source 
than from the doctrine of predestination." But, 
Melancthorts judgment of these matters will 
best appear from the whole passage ; which the 
reader will find in the book and chapter just re- 
ferred to. 

w Divina Predestinatio" says he, " Liberia- 
tern homini adimit : Divine predestination quite 
strips man of his boasted liberty : for, all things 
come to pass according to God's fore-appoint- 
ment, even the internal thoughts of all creatures, 



De Serv. Abitr. cap. 20. 



197 

no less than their external works. Therefore, 
Eph. i. the apostle gives us to understand, that 
God " performed! all things according to the 
counsel of his own will." And our Lord him- 
self asks, Mat. x. u Are not two sparrows sold 
for a farthing ? yet one of them falleth not to the 
ground, without your Father." Pray, what can 
be more full to the point, than such a declaration I 
So Solomon, Prov. xvi. " The Lord hath made 
all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for the 
day of evil." And in the xxth chapter, " Man's 
goings are of the Lord : how then can a man un* 
derstand his own way ?" To which the prophet 
Jeremiah does also set his seal, saying, chapter 
x. " O Lord, I know that the way of man is not 
In himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct 
his own steps." The historical part of scrip- 
ture teaches us the same great truth. So, Gen. 
xv. we read that the iniquity of the Amorites was 
not yet full. In 1 Sam. ii. we are told, Eli's sons 
hearkened not to his reproof, because the Lord 
would slay them. What could bear a stronger 
resemblance to change and accident, than Saul's 
calling upon Samuel, only with a view to seek out 
his father's asses ? (1 Sam. ix.) yet, the visit 
was foreordained of God, and designed to an- 
swer a purpose little thought of by Saul, 1 Sam* 
Ix. 15, 16. [See also a most remarkable chain 
of predestinated events in reference to Saul, and 
foretold by the prophet, 1 Sam. x. 2, 8.] " In 
pursuance of the divine preordination, there went 
with Saul a band of men, " whose hearts God had 
touched," 1 Sam. x. 26.-— The harshness of king 
Rehoboam's answer to the ten tribes, and the sub- 
sequent revolt of those tribes from his dominion,, 
are by the sacred historian expressly ascribed to 
God's decree : " wherefore, the king hearkened 
not unto the people : for the cause was from the 
17 



198 

Lord, that he might perform his saying which the 
Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite, unto Jero- 
boam the son of Nebat," 1 Kings xii. 15. — - 
What is the drift of the apostle Paul, in the 9th 
and 10th of Romans, quam ut omnia, quce 
fiunt, in destinationem divinam refer at? but to 
resolve all things that come to pass into God's de- 
stination ? the judgment of the flesh, or of mere 
unregenerate reason, usually starts back from this 
truth with horror : but on the contrary, the judg- 
ment of a spiritual man will embrace it with af- 
fection. Neque enim vel timorem del, vel Jiduci- 
am in deum, certius aliunde disces, quam ubi im- 
bueris animum hac de predestinatione sententia : 
u You will not learn either the fear of God or 
affiance in him from a surer source than from 
getting your mind deeply tinctured and seasoned 
with this doctrine of predestination." Does not 
Solomon in the book of Proverbs, inculcate it 
throughout ; and justly : for how else could he 
direct men to fear God and trust in him ? the same 
he does in the book of Ecclesiastes : nor had any 
thing so powerful a tendency to repress the pride 
of man's encroachingreason, and to lower the swel- 
ling conceit of his supposed discretion as the firm 
belief quod a Deo Jiunt omnia, that all things are 
from God. What invincible comfort did Christ im- 
part to his disciples in assuring them that a their 
very hairs were all numbered" by the Creator ? Is 
there then (may any objector say,) no such thing 
as contingency ? no such thing as chance, or for- 
tune ? — No. Omnia necessario evenire scripturce 
docent ; the doctrine of scripture is, that all things 
come to pass necessarily. Be it so, that to you 
some events seem to happen contingently ; you 
nevertheless must not be run away with by the 
suggestions of your own narrow-sighted reason. 
Solomon himself, the wisest of men, was so deep- 



159 

ly versed in. the doctrine of inscrutable predesti- 
nation as to leave this humbling maxim on re- 
cord ; u When I applied my heart to know wis- 
dom, and to see the business that is done upon 
the earth ; then I beheld all the work of God, that 
a man cannot find out the work that is done un- 
der the sun ; because, though a man labour to 
seek it out, yet he shall not find ; yea, further, 
though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he 
not be able to find it," Eccles. viii. 16, 17. 

Melancthon prosecutes the argument much far- 
ther ; but this may suffice for a specimen. And 
it is not unworthy of notice, that Luther so highly 
approved of Melancthon's performance, and es- 
pecially of the first chapter (from whence the 
above extract is given ;) that he [Luther] thus 
writes of it in his epistle to Erasmus, prefixed to 
his book De Serv. Arb. " That it was worthy of 
everlasting duration, and to be received into the 
ecclesiastical canon." Let it likewise be observ- 
ed, that Melancthon never to the very last re- 
tracted a word of what he there delivers ; which 
a person of his piety and integrity would most 
certainly have done, had he afterwards (as some 
have artfully and falsely insinuated) found rea- 
son to change his judgment on these heads. 



rims. 



AN 



APPENDIX 



CONCERNING 



THE FATE OF THE ANCIENTS. 

FROM THE LATIN OF JUSTUS LIPSIUS.* 

Jb ATE, (says Apuleius) according to Plato, is 
that, u Per quod, inevitabiles co git at zones Del 
atque incepta complentur ;" whereby the purpo- 
ses and designs of God are accomplished. Hence, 
the Platonics considered providence under a 
three-fold distinction ; 1. The providentia prima, 
or that which gave birth to all effects ; and is de- 
fined by them to be ry vgalx (Bes vovcis, the in- 
tention, or will of the Supreme God* 2. The 
providentia secunda, or actual agency of the se- 
condary or inferior beings, who were supposed 
to pervade the heavens, and from thence by their 
Influence, to regulate and dispose of all subluna- 
ry things ; and especially to prevent the extinc- 
tion of any one species below. 3, The provi- 
dentia tertia, supposed to be exerted by the Genii, 
whose office it was to exercise a particular care 
over mankind, to guard our persons, and direct 
our actions. 

But the stoical view of providence, or fate, 
was abundantly more simple, and required no 

* Vide Lipsii Physiolog. Stoic. Lib. 1. Dissert, xii. 



201 

such nicety of distinction. These philosophers 
did at once derive all the chain of causes and ef- 
fects from their true and undoubted source, 
the will of the one living' and true God. 
Hence, with these sages, the words Deity, Fate, 
Providence, were frequently reciprocated, as 
terms synonymous. Thus Seneca, speaking of 
God ; " Will you call him fate P You will call 
him rightly ; for all things are suspended on 
him. Himself is causa causarum, the cause of 
causes beside." The laws of the universe are 
from God ; whence the same philosopher else- 
where observes, Omnia certa et in ceternum 
dicta lege decurrere ; All things go on according 
to a certain rule or decree ordained for ever ; 
meaning in the law of fate. So Cicero : u All 
things come to pass according to the sovereignty 
of the eternal law." And Pindar probably had 
an eye to this, where he says, Ne^ev 7r&v]w ficta- 
teeti B-v&rw rs Kdi uQmgiI&v, sivxi. That the law ru- 
leth all, whether gods or mortals. Manlius most 
certainly had : 

Sed nihil in tota magis est mirabile mole. 

Quam Ratio, & certis quod Lcgibus omnia jiarent* 
Where, by Ratio, is evidently meant the decree- 
ing mind of God ; and, by Leges, is meant fate^ 
or that series of causes and effects which is the 
offspring of his decree. 

Homer cannot begin his Iliad without assert- 
ing this grand truth: A/(^ ^ {\z\af\o pe*q. The 
counsel or decree of Jupiter was fulfilled. The 
divine poet sets out on this exalted principle ; he 
puts it in the front of the noblest poem in the 
world, as a testimony both of his wisdom and his 
faith. It was as if he had said, " I shall sing of 
numberless events, equally grand, entertaining, 
and important; but I cannot begin to unfold 
them without laying down this 7 as a first, funda- 
17 * 



202 

mental axiom, that, though brought to pass by the 
instrumental agency of men, they were the fruit 
of God's determining will, and of his all-direct- 
ing providence*" 

Neither are those minuter events, which seem- 
ingly are the result of chance, excluded from this 
law. Even these do not happen, but come to pass 
in a regular order of succession, and at their due 
period of time. " Causa pendet ex causa : pri- 
vata ac publico, longus ordo^rerum trahit" says 
Seneca; " Cause proceeds from cause : the long 
train of things draws with it all events, both 
public and private." Excellent is that of Sopho- 
cles ; (Aj. Flagell.) 

Era jitfv sv ytou rccvlcc, %oci to, ttc&vV oizi, 

Ksiv®** sxeivcc ?e?ye*ia. y-ccvm rce^t* 

1. e. u I am firmly of opinion, that all these 
things, and whatever else befall us, are in conse- 
quence of the divine purpose : Whoso thinks 
otherwise is at liberty to follow his own judg- 
ment, but this will ever be mine." 

The Longus ordo rerum, mentioned by Sene- 
ca, is what he elsewhere styles, Causarum hn- 
plexa series^ or a perpetual implication of causes. 
This, according to Laertius, was called by the 
Stoics, air tec, Tm oviw etgaf&evjj, an involved, or con- 
catenate causuality of whatever has any exist- 
ence : for, et%fJL<&> is a chain, or implicate connec- 
tion. Agreeably to this idea, Chrysippus gives 
the following definition of fate : *EifM^fu^ wx>h 

&VO*lX,W CVvlc&jrtV TW oX&V, f| CCl^lbt, T&JV tTSgOOV T0i$ sleg0t$ 

zTrMKctPiXOxvlav, a,u>s]&voXx Koti ce,7rctgct,€ctl& yc-j^ rvgroicev'ivs 

rtftartoxnisl " Fate is that natural, established or- 
der and constitution of all things from everlast- 
ing, whereby they mutually follow upon each 



203 

other, in consequence of an immutable and per- 
petual complication/' 

Let us examine this celebrated definition of 
fate. 1. He calls it natural tsW7*f**' meaning De- 
nature, the great Natura Prima, or God : for 
by some Stoics, God and nature are used promis- 
cuously. But, because the Deity must be sup- 
posed both to decree and to act with wisdom, in- 
telligence, and design, fate is sometimes men- 
tioned by them under the name of Aoy(&, or rea- 
son* Thus they define fate, (Laert in Zen.) 

fif&agj&eivv, Xayov, x,ql$ cv o xog-/x(&> foeZetyflcci* to be 

that supreme u reason, whereby the world is 
governed and directed," or more minutely, thus; 

Aoycv, x,&$ 9 cv f* f&ev ysycvc n f ot> ysyove, rcc £$ Xivcjabvcc 
yivsrat, r<& £e yeyqG-af&evot yevtjcercct, " That reason, 

whereby the things that have been, were ; the 
things that now are, have a present existence; 
and the things that are to be shall be. Reason, 
you see, or wisdom, in the Deity, is an antece- 
dent cause, from whence both providence and in- 
ferior nature are derived. It is added in Stobceus^ 

fJLeTc&hxf&Gcivei os TX Aos-tf, tjjv c&Ay&&uv, ryv etirtetv 9 tjjv 

(pvTiVy r;jv avaepfcjjv. u e. that Chrysippus some- 
times varies his terms ; and, instead of the word 
reason, substitutes the words truth, cause, na- 
ture, necessity : intimating, that fate is the true, 
natural, necessary cause of the things that are, 
and of the manner in which they are, 2. This 
fate is said to be e| tuha, from everlasting. Nor 
improperly : since the constitution of things was 
settled and fixed in the divine mind (where they 
had a sort of ideal existence) previous to their ac- 
tual creation, tmd therefore considered as certainly 
future, in his decree, may be said to have been in 
some sense co-eternal with himself. 3. The immu- 
table and perpetual complication, mentioned in the 
definition, means no more than that reciprocal in- 



204 

volution of causes and effects from God down- 
wards, by which things and events, positis omni- 
bus ponendis, are necessarily produced, accord- 
ing to the plan which infinite wisdom designed 
from the beginning. God, the first cause, hath 
given being and activity to an immense number 
of secondary subaltern causes ; which are so inse- 
parably linked and interwoven with their re- 
spective effects (a connexion truly admirable, 
and not to be comprehended by man in his pre- 
sent state,) that those things which do in reality 
come to pass necessarily, and by inevitable des- 
tiny seem, to the superficial observer, to come to 
pass in the common course of nature, or by vir- 
tue of human reasoning and freedom. This is 
that inscrutable method of divine wisdom, u A 
qua" (says St. Austin) " est omnis modus, om- 
nis species, omnis ordo, mensura, numerus, pon- 
dus ; a qua sunt semina formarum, formse semi- 
num, motus seminum atque formarum." 

Necessity is the consequence of fate. So Tris- 
IliegistUS ! naflx JV yiwtrca (bvvst Kett hfi&giAsvii, kccl &% 

xcci hf&*gti£vi}. i. e. " All things are brought about 
by nature and by fate : neither is any place void 
of providence. Now providence is the self-perfect 
reason of the super-celestial God ; from which 
reason of his issue two native powers, necessity 
and fate.' y Thus, in the judgment of the wiser 
Heathens, effects were to be traced up to their 
producing causes ; those producing causes were 
to be farther traced up to the still higher causes, 
by which they were produced ; and those higher 
causes, to God, the cause of them* Persons, 
things, circumstances, events, and consequences, 
are the effects of necessity : Necessity is the 
daughter of fate ; Fate is the offspring of God's 



205 

infinite wisdom and sovereign will. Thus, all 
things are ultimately resolved into their great 
primary cause ; by whom the chain was original- 
ly let down from heaven, and on whom every 
link depends. 

It must be owned, that all the fatalists of anti- 
quity, (particularly among the Stoics) did not con- 
stantly express themselves with due precision. A 
Christian, who is savingly taught by the word and 
Spirit of God, must be pained and disgusted, not 
to say, shocked, when he reads such an assertion 

aS TJJV 7TB7irg6)[A£VV}V fAOtgC&V OZ^VOOtJoV £^t C67T0^>VG'£tV KC&i Otto)* 

God himself cannot possibly avoid his destiny, 
(Herodot. 1.) or that of the poet Philemon: 

Common men are servants to kings ; kings are 
servants to the gods ; and God is a servant to ne- 
cessity. So Seneca : " Eadem necessitas & Deos 
alii gat ; irrevocabilis Divina pariter atque huma- 
na cursus vehit. Hie ipse, omnium conditor ac 
rector, scripsit quidem fata, sed saquitur. Sem- 
per paret : Semel jussit." The self-same neces- 
sity binds the gods themselves. All things, di- 
vine as well as human, are carried forward by 
one identical and overpowering rapidity. The* 
supreme Author and Governor of the universe 
hath indeed written and ordained the fates ; but 
having once ordained them, he ever after obeys 
them. He commanded them at first, for once ; but 
his conformity to them is perpetual. This is, with- 
out doubt, very irreverently, and very incau- 
tiously expressed. — Whence it has been common 
with many Christian writers to tax the Stoics with 
setting up a first cause superior to God himself^ 
and on which he is dependent. 



206 

But, I apprehend, these philosophers meant in 
reality no such thing. All they designed to in- 
culcate was, That the xvill of God and his decrees 
are Unchangeable : that there can be no altera- 
tion in the divine intention ; no new act arise in 
his mind : no reversion of his eternal plan ; all 
being founded in adorable sovereignty ; ordered 
by infallible wisdom; ratified by omnipotence ; 
and cemented with immutability. Thus Lucan : 

Finxis in ceternum causas ; qua cuncta coereet, 

Se quoque lege tenens. 

And this, not through any imbecility in God, 
or as if he was subject to fate, of which (on the 
contrary) himself was the ordainer; but because it 
is his pleasure to abide by his own decree. For, as 
Seneca observes, " Imminutio majestatis sit, and 
confessio erroris, mutanda fecissa : Necesse est et 
eadem placere, cui nisi optima placere non pos- 
sunt:" " It would detract from the greatness of 
God, and look as if he acknowledged himself liable 
to mistakes, was he to make changeable decrees : 
his pleasure must necessarily be always the same : 
seeing that only which is best, can at any time, 
please an all-perfect being, a good man (adds this 
philosopher) is under a kind of pleasing necessity 
to do good ; and, if he did not do it, he could 
not be a good man," 

" Magnum hoc argumentum est firmse volun- 
tatis, ne mutare quidem posse :" " It is a striking 
proof of a magnanimous will, to be absolutely 
incapable of changing." And such is the will 
of God, it never fluctuates nor varies. But, on 
the other hand, was he susceptible of change, 
could he through the intervention of any inferi- 
or cause, or by. some untoward combination of 
external circumstances, be induced to recede 
from his purpose, and alter his plan, it would be 
a most incontestable mark of weakness and de- 



207 

pendente : the force of which argument made 
Seneca, though a heathen, cry out " Non exter- 
na Deos cogunt ; sed sua illis in legem aeterna 
voluntas est ;" " Outward things cannot compel 
the Gods ; but their own eternal will is a law to 
themselves. " It may be objected, that this 
seems to infer, as if the Deity was still under 
some kind of restraint : By no means. Let Se- 
neca obviate this cavil, as he effectually does in 
these admirable words : " Nee Deus ab hoc mi- 
nus liber aut potens est ; Ipse enim est necessitas 
sua .-" God is not hereby, either less free, or 
less powerful ; for he himself is his own neces- 
sity." 

On the whole, it is evident that when the Sto- 
ics speak, even in the strongest terms, of the ob- 
ligation of fate on God himself, they may and 
ought to be understood in a sense worthy of the 
adorable uncreated Majesty. In thus interpret- 
ing the doctrine of fate, as taught by the genuine 
philosophers of the Portico, I have the great St. 
Austin on my side ; who, after canvassing, and 
justly rejecting the bastard, or astrological fate; 
thus goes on : " At qui omnium connectionem 
seriemque causarum, qua fit omne quod fit, fati 9 
nomine appellant ; non multum cum eis, de ver- 
bi controversia, certandum atque laborandam est ; 
quandoquidem ipsum causarum ordinem, and 
quandam connectionem, summi Dei tribuunt 
voluntati:" i. e^ " But for those philosophers, 
[meaning the Stoics] who, by the word fate, 
mean that regular chain and series of causes, 
to which all things that come to pass owe 
their immediate existence : we will not earnestly 
contend with these persons about a mere term, 
and we the rather acquiesce in their manner of 
expression, because they carefully ascribe this 



208 

fixed succession of things, and this mutual con- 
catenation of causes and effects, to the will oj the 
supreme God" Austin adds many observations 
of the same import ; and proves from Seneca 
himself, as rigid a Stoic as any, that this was the 
doctrine, and the meaning of his philosophic 
brethren* 



A 

CAVEAT 

AGAINST UNSOUND DOCTRINES: 

JEING 
THE SUBSTANCE OF- 

A SERMON 

BREACHED IN TEE PARISH CHURCH 

of 



ST. ANN, BLACKFRYARSj 

ON SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 1770. 



* -^^<S — — 

BY AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, A. B. 

VICAR OF BROAD-HEMBURY, DEVO^. 



feeing, then, that we have such hope, we use great -plainness 
of speech,.. .2 Cor, uu\% 



WETV-rORK; 

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE LINDSAY, 

Paul €? Thomas, Printers. 
1811. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



XHE ensuing discourse was first preached at St. Matthew, 
Bethnal Green, April 22. Some persons then present, to 
whose judgment and request I pay the highest deference, 
desired me to retrieve as much of it as I could the Sunday 
following at St. Ann's ; with a view to its being taken in 
short-hand, and published. 

The loss of my nearest relative, soon after this sermon 
was preached, and the many avocations occasioned by that 
lamented and unexpected event, account but too well for the 
delay with which the publication has been attended. Having, 
however, transcribed it at last from the notes of the person 
who penned it at the time of its delivery, I now transmit it to 
the press, most affectionately and respectfully inscribed to 
Biy dear London friends, whose favours, equally great, nu- 
merous, and unmerited, 1 have no other public way of ac- 
knowledging. 

J,ohdo^, July 3, 17TQ- 



A SERMON, Kc. 



AND IF THERE BE ANY OTHER THING THAT IS CON- 
TRARY TO SOUND DOCTRINE. — 1 Tim. i. 10. 

J^T Paul is commonly, and most probably, sup- 
posed to have written this epistle about A. D. 65, 
that is, about two years before his own martyr- 
dom, and about thirty-one after our Lord's ascen- 
sion — he addressed it to Timothy, who, though a 
very ^ young man, had been some time in the minis- 
try, and was then entrusted with the oversight of 
the church at Ephesus* In the estimation of un- 
prejudiced reason, " honourable age is not that 
which standeth in length of time, nor that is 
measured by number of years : but wisdom is 
the grey hairs unto men, and an unspotted life is 
old age."f 

But Timothy, though young, was far from ro- 
bust. He was only strong in the grace that is in 
Christ Jesus. His regenerate, heaven-born soul, 
dwelt in a sickly, infirm body, whence we read 
of his &rvxvat urBeveieti^ 1 Tim. v. 23. or frequent 
indispositions arising perhaps originally from a 
natural delicacy of constitution ; and certainly 
increased by a rigid abstemiousness and constant 
course of ministerial labours. Thus our hea- 



1 Tim. iv. 12. f Wisd. iv. 8, 9, 



212 

^enly Father, graciously severe, and wisely Hncf r 
takes care to infuse some salutary bitter into his 
children's cup below ; since, were they here to 
taste of happiness absolute and unmingled; were 
not the gales of prosperity, whether spiritual or 
temporal, counterpoised, more or less by the 
needful ballast of affliction, his people (al- 
ways imperfect here,) would be enriched to their 
loss and liable to be overset in their way to the 
kingdom of God. Wherefore, consummate fe- 
licity, without any mixture of wormwood, is re- 
served for our enjoyment in a state where perfect 
sunctijz cation will qualify us to possess it. In 
heaven, and there only, the inhabitants shall no 
more say in any sense whatever, I am sick. # 

St. Paul in the opening of his apostolic direc- 
tions to Timothy, adopts the same simple, majes- 
tic, and evangelical exordium, with which the 
rest of his epistles usually begin. Paul an apos- 
tle of Jesus Christ, ordained and sent forth by 
the head of the Church, the supreme Master of 
the spiritual vineyard, without whose internal, 
authoritative commission, none have a real right 
to minister in sacred things, or to thrust the sickte 
into God's harvest. For how can men preach 
to purpose, so as to be instruments of conviction, 
comfort, and sanctification, except they be sentf 
of God, and owned of him ? whence the apostle 
adds, By the commandment^ of God our Saviour, 
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope* 
As an English nobleman who travels to some 
foreign court, cannot reasonably expect to be re- 
ceived as the representative of his sovereign 



* Isai. xxxiii. 24. f Rom. x. 15. 

\ Kecr 9 eTrilccyw, according to the positive injunction, or 
express designation;. 



213 

here, unless charged with an actual delegation, 
and able to produce the credentials of his mis- 
sion ; no more is any individual authorized to 
arrogate to himself the honour of a divine am* 
bassage, but he that is called of God, as was Aa- 
ron.* A sufficient degree of gospel light and 
knowledge, an ardent love of souls, and a disin- 
terested concern for truth, a competent measure 
of ministerial gifts and abilities, and above all, a 
portion of divine grace and experience, a saving 
change of heart, and a life devoted to the glory 
of God, are essential prerequisites to an evangeli- 
cal discharge of the sacred function. 

The first verse may be read thus : "Paul an 
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the express 
or authoritative designation of Jesus Christ our 
God, Saviour, and Lord."f So the passage may 
be rendered : and so perhaps it ought to be un- 
derstood in its natural and most obvious con- 
struction. Now, even supposing that the apostle 
had not the divinity of Christ immediately in 
view at the time of his writing these words, yet 
you must either give up his inspiration, or believe 
that Christ is, with the Father "and the Spirit, 
God over all, blessed for ever ; since, on a sub- 
ject of such unspeakable consequence, it would 
have argued a degree of negligence, little short 
of criminal, had the apostle expressed himself 
In terms palpably liable to misapprehension. I 
therefore conclude, that both as a scholar and as 
a Christian, as Gamaliel's pupil, and as an inspi- 
red apostle, our sacred penman would have deli- 
vered himself in a far more guarded style, had 
not the Son of God been indeed God the Son. 



* Heb. v. 4. 
18 * 



214 

Either Jesus is the God, Saviour and Lord o£ 
his people, or St. Paul was guilty of such inex- 
cusable inaccuracy as every writer of common 
sense and common honesty would be sure to 
avoid. 

He goes on to style the blessed Jesus our 
hope. Ask almost any man, " Whether he 
hopes to be saved eternally ?" he will answer in 
the affirmative. But inquire again, u On what 
foundation he rests his hope l n Here, too, many 
are sadly divided. The Pelagian hopes to get 
to heaven by a moral life, and a good use of his 
natural powers. The Arminian, by a jumble of 
grace and free will, human works and the merits 
of Christ. The Deist, by an interested obser- 
vance of the social virtues. Thus merit-mon- 
gers of every denomination, agree in making any- 
thing the basis of their hope, rather than that 
foundation, which God's own hand hath laid in 
Zion. But what saith scripture ? It avers again 
and again, that Jesus alone is our hope : to the 
exclusion of all others. And to the utter anni- 
hilation of human deservings. Beware, there- 
fore, of resting your dependence, partly on 
Christ, and partly on some other basis. As 
surely as you bottom your reliance partly on the 
rock, and partly on the sand, so certainly, unless 
God give you an immediate repentance to your 
acknowledgment of the truth, will your suppo- 
sed house of defence fall and bury you in its ru- 
ins, no less than if you had raised it on the sand 
alone : Christ is the hope of glory.* Faith in his 
righteousness, received and embraced as our sole 
justifying obedience before God, and the love of 
Christ (an inseparable effect of that faith opera- 
ting on our hearts, and shining in our lives ;) are 

* Col. i. 17. 



215 

the most solid evidences we can have below, of 
our acceptance with the Father, and of our being 
saved in Jesus with an everlasting salvation. 

" Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith 5 
grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, 
and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Some have 
thought that Timothy was not converted under 
the ministry of St. Paul : and they ground their 
conjecture on Acts xvu.1,2. where Timothy is 
mentioned as a disciple, and a person well report- 
ed of by the Christians at Derbe and Lystra, pre- 
vious to St. Paul's visitation of those places* 
That Timothy was a nominal professor of reli- 
gion, and a youth of circumspect behaviour, are 
evident from that passage : which external form 
of godliness was probably the effect of the reli- 
gious * education he had the happiness to receive 
from his earliest childhood* But from St. Paul's 
compilation of him as " his own son in the 
faith," it may, I think, be reasonably inferred, 
that the young disciple was led from the outer 
court of mere external profession, into the sanc- 
tuary of heavenly and spiritual experience, ei- 
ther by the private labours, or under the public 
ministry of this apostle.. And none but those 
ministers whose endeavours have been blest to 
the conversion of souls ; and those persons, who 
have been born of God by their instrumentality ; 
can form any idea of that spiritual relation, and 
unspeakably tender attachment, which subsist be- 
tween spiritual fathers and the children of grace 
whom God hath given them. 

Timothy had been a true believer some con*- 
siderable time before St. Paul wrote this epistle. 
Consequently, by the " grace, mercy and peace,'* 



* 2 Tim. iii. lfc 



116 

which he prayed might be the portion of his be- 
loved converts ; we are to understand, not the 
first vouchsafement, but a large increase of those 
spiritual blessings and comforts : that he might 
have repeated discoveries, and continued mani- 
festations of the Father's electing grace ; of 
Christ's redeeming mercy ; and experience that 
sweet peace and joy in believing which are 
fruits of the Holy Spirit's influence, and flow from 
fellowship with him. Privileges these, which 
unawakened men will always ridicule ; but to 
which every real Christian will ardently aspire* 

Time would fail me should I attempt to con- 
sider all the intervenient verses. I find myself 
at a loss, not what to say, but what to leave un- 
said. However, I shall observe as briefly as I 
can, that one grand reason of St. Paul's writing 
this epistle, was to put Timothy on his guard 
against the dissemination of corrupt doctrines, 
and the insidious arts of corrupt teachers, with 
which the church of Ephesus, where Timothy 
was now stationed, seems to have been particu- 
larly infested. Unregenerate ministers are much 
the same in all ages, and in every country : Aw 
unconverted preacher in England^and an uncon- 
verted preacher in Italy, so far as matters mere- 
ly spiritual are concerned, stand nearly on aleveh 
These all are what the Ephesian schismatics 
were desirous to be, teachers of the law, or legal 
teachers. And all unconverted people, whether 
their denomination be protestant or popish, desire 
to be hearers of the law, and are displeased when 
they hear any thing else. We are naturally fond 
of that very law, which unless the righteousness 
of Christ is ours, is the ministration of death, 
pronounces us accursed, and binds us over to 
everlasting ruin* The pernicious error against 
which Timothy was directed to guard his flock*, 



217 

was a dependence on the law, and the works of 
it, for salvation. And the reason why this de- 
structive tenet was taught and enforced by some 
preachers of that day, and has been taught by 
their successors ever since, is assigned by the 
apostle ; who observes, that those blind guides 
" understand neither what they said, nor where- 
of they affirmed :" For if they had understood 
any thing of God's inviolable holiness ; of the 
law's inflexible rectitude, extent, and spirituali- 
ty ; of man's total inability to fulfil it perfectly, 
(and without perfect obedience the law cannot 
justify,) they would at once have ceased to be 
teachers of the law, and simply pointed sinners 
to that Saviour alone, who " is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that believ- 
eth."* 

Fashionable as the doctrine of legal, condition- 
al justification is, we may say to every indivi- 
dual that embraces it, " There is one that con- 
demns you, even Moses, in whom you trust."f 
and the very law on which you rest : for its lan- 
guage is, u He that breaketh me only in one 
point, is guilty of all.% And cursed is every 
man that continueth not in all things that are 
written in the book of the law to do them«"§ 
Shew me the man who has never offended in one 
point ; who hath continued in all things prescri- 
bed by Jehovah's perfect law ; who loves the 
Lord with all his heart, and his fellow -creatures 
as himself ; shew me the man who from the first 
to the last moment of his life comes up to this 
standard ; and then you will shew me a man who 
can be justified by works of his own. 



* Rom. x. 4. f John v. 45, 

t James ii. 1Q. § Gal. iiu 10^ 



218 

But if no such person could ever be found, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, singly excepted, St» 
Paul's conclusion stands unshaken, that they who 
teach or hold justification by any other obedience 
than that of Christ, a neither know what they 
say, nor whereof they affirm." 

Yet notwithstanding we neither are nor can be 
justified by the law still the uses of the law 
are numerous and important : whence the apos- 
tle takes care to add that the law is good, or an- 
swers several valuable purposes, if a man use it 
lawfully. Nothing can be more evident than that 
by the law in this place is meant the moral law. 
The ceremonial could not possibly be intended ; 
because it is not now to be adhered to, and is no 
longer in force : Whereas the apostle speaks of 
a law which is to this very day unrepealed and 
of standing use : u The law is good if a man use 
it lawfully." Of this law there is a two-fold 
use : Or rather an use and abuse. The use of 
the law is, among other things, first to convince 
us of our utter sinfulness ; and then secondly,, to 
lead us to Christ, as the great and only fulfiller 
of all righteousness. Now, the law does not an- 
swer these important ends directly and of itself, 
but in a subserviency to the Holy Spirit's influ- 
ence j* when that adorable person is pleased to 



* " A gracious sight of our vileness," says one of the 
ablest and most useful writers of the last century, " is the 
work of Christ only, by his Spirit. The law is indeed a 
looking-glass ; able to represent the filthiness of a person : 
but the law gives not eyes to see that filthiness. Bring a 
looking glass and set it before a blind man, he sees no more 
spots in his face than if he had none at all. Though the 
glass be a good glass, still the glass cannot give eyes ; yet, 
if he had eyes, he would in the glass see his blemishes. 
The apostle James compares the law to a looking-glass ; and 
a faculty to represent is all the law possesseth : but it doth 



219 

make the law instrumental to the conversion of 
a sinner. In which case, having shaken us out 
of our self-righteousness, and reduced us to an 
happy necessity of closing with the righteous- 
ness of Christ ;-, the law has still another and a 
farther use no less momentous : For, thirdly, It 
from that moment forward stands as the great 
rule of our practical walk and conversation: 
Seeing a true believer is not without law, (#v«^s 
a lawless person,) towards God : but is mow, 
within the bond of the law to Christ : # Not ex- 
empted from his control, as the standard of mo- 
ral action, though delivered from its power and 
execration, as a covenant of works* 

These are the three grand, lawful uses of the 
law. On the other hand, if any of us are so de- 
plorably lost to all sense of Christian duty and 
gospel privilege, as to suppose that by our own 
partial conformity to the law, how sincere soever 
it be, we can work out, and work up a righ- 
teousness for ourselves, wherein to stand before 
the tribunal of God, and for which to obtain any 
favour at his hand, we use the law unlawfully: 
we sadly mistake, the very end for which the law 
was promulgated, which was, that under the effi- 
cacy of grace, and the teachings of the blessed 
Spirit it might bring us to a knowledge of ourf 
guilt, and a sense of ourij: danger ; convince us 
x>i our§ helplessness, and as a schoolmaster, 
bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by 
faith, and not by the works of the law : for by 



not impart a faculty to see what it represents. It is Chrbt 
alone who opens the eyes of men to behold their own vile- 
ness and guilt He opens the eyes, and then in the law a 
man sees what he is." 

* 1 Cor. ix. 21. f R°m. iii. 20 * Deut. xxxiii. 2, Hefr, 
xU. 18, 19, 20, 21. § Psalm cxix. 96, Rom. viL 3. 



220 

the works of the law, as performed by us, shall 
no flesh be justified. 3 * 

That grand error of the heart (for it is an 
Tieart-error, as well as an head-error, deeply 
rooted in our corrupt nature, as well as perni- 
ciously pleasing to unassisted reason,) which mis- 
represents justification as at all suspended on 
causes or conditions ^of human performance ; will, 
and must, if finally persisted in, transmit the un- 
believer, who has opportunities of better infor- 
mation, to that place of torment, "where the 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 

The apostle goes on : u Knowing that the law 
is not made for a righteous man, but for the dis- 
obedient," &c. The phrase, a righteous 7nan y 
means, in its strictly evangelical sense, one that 
is in Christ $ Gr, who is righteous before God in 
the righteousness of his Son, apprehended by 
faith. Now, the law, i. e. the damnatory sen- 
tence of it, was not designed for such a person* 
Weak believers have sometimes a good deal to 
do with the lav/, and are apt to hover about 
mount Sinai ; but the law has nothing to do with 
them any more than a creditor, who has received 
ample payment from the hand of a surety, can 
have any remaining claim on the original debtor* 
The law took, as it were, our heavenly Bonds- 
man by the throat, saying, " Pay me that thou 
owest," and Jesus acknowledged the demand. 
He paid the double debt of obedience and suffer- 
ing to the utmost farthing. So that, as some 
render the words under consideration, " the law 
lieth not against a righteous man -;"t its claims 
are satisfied ; its sentence is superseded ; its con- 



Gal iii, 34. and ii. 16, t Aiwu HfM* * zeltav 



221 

<iemning power is abolished. And whoever have 
been enabled to fly for refuge to the righteous- 
ness of Christ, and to lay hold on the hope set 
before them, may depend on this as a most cer- 
tain truth, that " Christ hath redeemed them 
from the curse of the law, having been himself 
made a curse for them, 55 ^ Such are not under 
the law, whether as a covenant of works to be 
saved by, or as a denunciation of wrath to be con- 
demned by ; but they are under grace ;f under 
that sweet dispensation of everlasting love, which, 
when made known to the believing soul, at once 
ensures the practice of universal godliness, and 
refers the entire praise of salvation to the un- 
merited grace of Father, Son, and Spirit. I said, 
that the dispensation of grace ensures the prac- 
tice of universal godliness ; for, considered as 
a rule of moral conduct, the law most certainly 
is designed for believers. And indeed, only be- 
lievers can yield real, acceptable obedience to the 
law ; for, " Without faith it is impossible to 
please God :":j: and " Whatever proceedeth not 
from faith is sin."§ Therefore, if God hath not 
wrought living faith in your heart, you have ne- 
ver performed one truly good work in your 
whole life. 

St. Paul next proceeds to draw a catalogue of 
sins, against which the denunciations of the law 
are most eminently levelled : closing the list with 
the words first read, " And if there be any other 
thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." A 
plain intimation, that error in principals funda- 
mental, has a very unfavourable influence on 
practicals ; and that, in proportion as the doc- 



* Gal. iii. 13. f Rom. vi. 14 i Heb. si 9* § Rom.xiV. 15: 
19 



222 

trines of God are disbelieved, the commandments 
of God will be disobeyed. Doctrinals, there- 
fore, are not of that small significance which the 
injudicious and the heterodox affect to give out. 
For, though matters of doctrine are by some con- 
sidered merely as the shell of religion, and experi- 
ence only as the kernel ; yet let it be remembered, 
that there is no coming at the kernel but through 
the shell ; and, while the kernel gives value to the 
shell, the shell is the guardian of the kernel* 
Destroy that, and you injure this. The apostle 
in the words before us stamps the evangelical 
doctrines w^ith the seal of dignity, usefulness, and 
importance; as is evident from the epithet he 
makes use of. He calls the system of gospel 
truths, sound doctrine : Cyiccivacij M*sx*xt*, salu~ 
tary, health-giving doctrine ; not only right and 
sound in itself, but conducing to the spiritual 
strength and health of those that receive it : 
Doctrine, that operates like some efficacious re* 
storative on an exhausted constitution ; that ren- 
ders the sin-sick souls of men healthy, vigorous, 
and thriving : that causes them through the bles- 
sing of divine grace, to " grow as the lily, and 
to cast forth the root as Lebanon, to revive as 
the corn, and to flourish as the vine, to diffuse 
their branches, and rival the olive-tree,"* both 
in beauty and fruitfulness. 

On the other hand, unsound doctrine has the 
very opposite effects. It impoverishes our views 
of God, withers our hopes, makes our faith lan- 
guid, blasts our spiritual enjoyments, and lays the 
axe to the very root of christian obedience. We 
may say of it as the Jewish students said on 
another occasion, there is death in the pot. If 



* Hos. xivc 



92: 



you eat it you are poisoned. With the utmost 
attention, therefore, should we attend to the 
apostle's caveat, and avoid every thing " that is 
contrary to sound doctrine." 

Many such things there are. I have not time 
even to recite, much less to expatiate on them all. 
I shall, therefore, only endeavour, as God may en- 
able me, to point out a few very common, bat 
very capital errors, which are totally inconsistent 
with sound doctrine. 

Previous to my entrance on this part of the 
subject, I would premise two particulars : 

1# That what I am going to observe, does not 
proceed from the least degree of bitterness against 
the persons of any, from whom I differ j and, 

2. That I am infinitely remote even from the 
slightest wish of erecting myself into a dictator 
to others. 

The rights of conscience are inviolably sacred ; 
and liberty of private judgment is every man's 
birthright. If, however, any like Esau, have 
sold their birthright for a mess of pottage, by 
subscribing to articles they do not believe, merely 
for the sake of temporal profit or aggrandise- 
ment, they have only themselves to thank for the 
little ceremony they are entitled to.— With re- 
gard to myself, as one whom God has been pleas- 
ed to put into the ministry ; above all, into the 
ministry of the best and purest visible church in 
the whole world ; I should be a traitor to God*, 
to Christ, to the scriptures, and to truth — un- 
faithful to souls, and to my own conscience, if 
I did not, without fear or favour, declare the 
entire counsel of God, so far as I apprehend my- 
self led into the knowledge of it. Inconsider- 
able as I am, many of you are, no doubt, ac- 
quainted with the variety of reports that have 
been spread (especially since this time of my be- 



224 

:ng In town) concerning me, and the doctrine* 
by which I hold it my indispensable duty to abide, 
I deem myself, therefore, happy, in having one 
more opportunity to testify the little that I know 
concerning that " mystery of the gospel which 
God ordained before the world for our glory." 
And I desire in the mast public manner to thank 
the great Author of all consolation, for a very 
particular instance of his favour, and which I look 
upon as one of the most felicitating circumstances 
of my whole life : I mean my early acquaintance 
with the doctrines of grace. Many great and 
good men who were converted late in life, have 
had the whole web of their preceding ministry 
to unravel, and been under a necessity of re- 
versing all they had been delivering far years be- 
fore. But it is not the smallest of my distin- 
guishing mercies, that, from the very commence- 
ment of my unworthy ministrations I have not 
had a single doctrine to retract, nor a single word 
to unsay. I have subscribed to the articles, 
homilies, and liturgy, five separate times, and 
that from principle ; nor do I believe those forms 
of sound words because I have subscribed to 
them, but I therefore subscribed them because I 
believed them. I set out with the gospel from 
the very first : and having obtained help from 
God, I continue to this day witnessing both to 
small and great, saying no other things than Mo- 
ses and the prophets, 5 ^ Jesus, and his apostles, 
have said before me. And, in an absolute de- 
pendence on the divine power and faithfulness, I 
trust that I shall to the end be enabled to count 
neither health, wealth, reputation, nor life itself, 
dear to me, so I may finish my course with joy ? 



* Acts xxvi. 22> 



225 

and fulfil the ministry which I have received of 
the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the 
grace of God,"* 

" Careless (myself a dying man) 
Of dying men's esteem : 
Happy if thou, O God, approve, 
Though all beside condemn." 

If the most accomplished and respectable per- 
son of all heathen antiquity could declare, that 
he " would rather obtain the single approbation 
of Cato than have a triumph voted to him by 
the senate," much more will a christian minister 
prefer the approbation of God to all the evanid 
eclats of an applauding universe. 

I shall arm myself this afternoon with a two- 
fold weapon : with the bible in one hand, and 
our church articles in the other. I shall appeal 
at once for all I have to say to the authority of 
God's unerring oracles, and to their faithful epi- 
tome, the decisions of the church of- England. 
They who perhaps set light by the scriptures, 
may yet pay some decent deference to the 
church : and they who it may be pay little atten- 
tion to church determinations, will render impli- 
cit credit to the scriptures. So that, between the 
bible and the thirty-nine articles I hope I shall 
be able to carry my point, and, as far as my sub- 
ject leads me, enter a successful caveat against 
whatever things are contrary to sound doctrine* 
In attempting this I shall fix my foot upon Ar- 
minianism ; which, in its several branches, is the 
gangrene of the protestant churches, and the 
predominant evil of the day. 

What think you, 



* Acts xx. 24 
19 t * 



226 

1. Of conditional election P We have indeed, 
some who deny there is any such thing as election 
at all. They start at the very word, as if it were 
a spectre just come from the shades and never 
seen before. I shall waste no time on these men. 
They are out of the pale, to which my allotted 
plan confines me at present. They cannot be 
church of England men who proscribe a term 
that occurs so frequently in her offices and stan- 
dards of faith ; nor can they even be Christians 
at large who cashier with affected horror, a word 
which, under one form or other, is to be met with 
between forty and fifty times at least in the New 
Testament only. 

My business now is with those who endea- 
vour to save appearances by admitting the word, 
while in reality they anathematize the thing. 
These profess to hold an election ; but then it is 
a conditional one, and founded, as they suppose, 
on some good quality or qualities foreseen in the 
objects of it. Thus bottoming the purposes of 
God on the precarious will of apostate men ; 
and making that which is temporal, the cause of 
that which was eternal. " The Deity," say per- 
sons of this cast, " foreknowing how you and I 
would behave, and foreseeing our improvements 
and our faithfulness, and what a proper use we 
should make of our free will, ordained us, and 
all such good sort of people, to everlasting life." 
Nothing can be more contrary to sound doc- 
trine, and even to sound reason than this. It 
proceeds on a supposition that man is before- 
~hand with God in the business of salvation; and 
that the resolutions of God's will are absolutely 
dependent on the will of his creatures : That he 
has in short created a set of sovereign beings, 
from whom he receives law ; and that his own 
purpose and conduct are shaped and regulated 



227 

according to the prior self-determinations of in- 
dependent man — What is this but atheism in a 
mask f for where is the difference between the 
denial of a first cause, and the assignation of a 
false one ? 

Quite opposite is the decision of inspiration, 
Romans u. 6. where the apostle terms God's 
choice of his people, an election of grace, or a 
gratuitous election ; and observes that " If it be 
of grace, then is it no more of works ; other- 
wise grace were no more grace : but if it be of 
works, then is it no more grace ; otherwise work 
were no more work." Conditional grace is a 
most palpable contradiction in terms. Grace is 
no longer grace than while it is absolute and free. 
You might with far greater ease bring the two 
poles together, than effect a coalition between 
grace and works in the affair of election. As 
far, and as high as the heavens are above the 
earth, are the immanent acts of God superior to 
a dependence on any thing wrought by sinful, 
perishable man. 

Consult our seventeenth article, and you will 
clearly see whether conditional election be the 
doctrine of the church of England. " Predesti- 
nation to life is the everlasting purpose of God, 
whereby before t he foundations of the world "were 
laid, he hath constantly decreed by his coun- 
sel secret to us, to deliver from curse and dam- 
nation those whom he hath chosen' in Christ out 
of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to ever- 
lasting salvation as vessels made to honour" Is 
there a word about conditionally here ? On the 
contrary, is not election or predestination unto 
life peremptorily declared to be God's own 
everlasting purpose, decree, counsel and choice ? 
The elect are said to be brought to salvation, not 
as persons of foreseen virtue and pliableness; 



228 

but simply and merely " as vessels made to he 
nour." Add to this that the article goes on to 
style election a benefit, or gift; u Wherefore, they 
that be endued with so excellent a benefit." — 
But how could predestination or blessedness be 
so termed, if it were suspended on the foresight 
of something to be wrought by the person pre- 
destinated ? For a condition in matters of spirit- 
ual concern, is analogous to a price in matters of 
commerce; and a purchased gift is just as good 
sense as conditional grace. 

Our venerable reformers were two well ac- 
quainted with the scriptures and with the power 
of God to err on a subject of such unutterable 
moment- Whence, in the article now cited they 
took care to lay God's absolute and sovereign 
election as the basis of sanctification : so far 
were they from representing sanctification as the 
ground-work of election. Our modern invert- 
ers of Christianity, the Arminians, by endeavour- 
ing to found election upon human qualifications, 
resemble an insane architect, who, in attempting 
to raise an edifice, should make tiles and laths 
the foundation, and reserve his bricks and stones 
for the roof. Quot sunt hominum virtutes, toti- 
dem sunt dei dona, said the learned and excel- 
lent Du Moulin : and if sanctification be God's 
gift, men's goodness could not possibly be a mo- 
tive to their election ; unless we can digest this 
enormous absurdity, viz. that God's gifts may 
be conditional and meritorious one of another. 
Do you imagine that God could foresee any ho- 
liness in men, which himself did not decree to 
give them ? You cannot suppose it, without be- 
lieving at the same time, that God is not the au- 
thor of all good ; and that there are, or may be, 
some good and perfect gifts, which do not de- 
scend from the Father of lights ; and that th& 



229 

apostle was widely mistaken when he laid down 
this axiom, that " it is God who of his own good 
pleasure worketh in us both to will and to do." 

According to our church, God's election leads 
the van ; sanctification forms the centre ; and 
glory brings up the rear :* " Wherefore, they 
that be endued with so excellent a benefit of 
God be called, according to God's purpose, by 
his Spirit working in due season ; they, through 
grace, obey the calling ; they be justified freely ; 
they be made the sons of God by adoption." 
Hitherto good works are not so much as men- 
tioned. Why so ? Because our reformers were 
Antimonians, and exploded or despised moral 
performances ? by no means. Those holy per- 
sons were themselves living confutations of so 
vile a suggestion. The tenor of their lives was 
as blameless as their doctrine. But they had 
learned to distinguish ideas, and were too judi- 
cious, both as logicians and divines, to represent 
effects as prior to the causes that produce them. 
They were not ashamed to betake themselves to 
the scriptures for information, and to deliver out 
the living water of sound doctrine pure and un- 
mingled as they had drawn it from the fountains 
of truth. Hence, election, calling, justifica- 
tion, and adoption, are set forth, not as caused by, 
but as the real and leading causes of that moral 
change, which sooner or later takes place in the 
children of God. For thus the article goes on ; 
* They be made like the image of his only be- 
gotten Son Jesus Christ : they walk religiously 
in good works ; and at length, by God's mercy, 
they attain to everlasting felicity." 

This then is the order: 1. Election: 2. Ef- 
fectual Calling : 3, Apprehensive Justification : 

* Art xvil 



230 

4* Manifestative Adoption : 5. Sanctiji cation : 
6. Religious xvalking in good works : 7. Continu- 
ance in these to the end : which last blessing 
must of necessity be included, because the arti- 
cle adds, that these elect, regenerate persons, at- 
tain at length to everlasting felicity ; which they 
could not do without final perseverance, any 
more than you or I, upon our departure from 
this church, could arrive at our respective homes, 
if we finally stop short of them by the way. — 
such, therefore, being the chain and process of 
salvation, how impious and how fruitless must 
any attempt be, either to transpose or put asun- 
der what God has so wisely and inseparably 
joined together ! 

Unless we take absolute election into the ac- 
count, we must either suppose that God saves no 
man whatever, or that those he saves are saved 
at random, and without design. But his good- 
ness forbids the first, and his wisdom excludes 
the latter. Absolute election therefore must be 
taken into the account, or you at once ipso facto, 
strike off either goodness or wisdom from the 
list of divine perfections. — That scheme of doc- 
trine must necessarily be untrue, which repre- 
sents the Deity as observing no regular order, no 
determinate plan, in an affair of such consequence 
as the everlasting salvation of his people. I can- 
not acquit of blasphemy, that system which likens 
the Deity to a careless ostrich, which having de- 
posited her eggs, leaves them in the sand to be 
hatched or crashed, just as chance happens. 
Surely he who numbers the very hairs of his 
people's heads, does not consign their souls, and 
their eternal interests to precarious hazard ! the 
blessings of grace and glory are too valuable and 
important to be shuffled and dealt out by the hand 
of chance. Besides, if one thing comes to pass 



231 

either without or contrary to the will of Godj 
another thing, nay, all things may come to pass 
in the same manner ; and then, good by to pro- 
vidence entirely. 

When Lysander the Spartan paid a visit to 
king Cyrus (at Corinth, if I mistake not,) he 
was particularly struck with the elegance and or- 
der, the variety and magnificence of Cyrus's gar* 
dens. Cyrus, no less charmed with the taste and 
judgment of his guest, told him with visible emo- 
tions of pleasure, " These lovely walks with all 
their beauty of disposition and vastness of ex- 
tent, were planned by myself; and almost every 
tree, shrub, and flower, which you behold, was 
planted by my own hand."— Now, when we take a 
view of the church, which is at once the house 
and garden of the living God ; that church which 
the Father loved — for which the Son became a 
man of sorrows — and which the Holy Spirit de- 
scends from heaven in all his plentitude of con- 
verting power, to cultivate and build anew ; 
w r hen we survey this living paradise, and this 
mystic edifice, of which such glorious things are 
spoken,-^ and on which such glorious privileges 
are conferred, must we not acknowledge, Thy 
sovereign hand, O uncreated love, drew the plan of 
this spiritual Eden ! Thy hand, almighty power, 
set every living tree, every true believer, in the 
courts of the Lord's house. Thy converted people 
are all righteous ; they shall inherit the land for 
ever, even the branches of thy planting, the work 
of thy hands, that thou mayest be glorified if 

Admitting election to be thus a complete, eter- 
nal, immanent act in the divine mind, and conse- 
quently irrespective of any thing in the persons 



Psalm lxxxv. .% f Isai. lx. 21. 



232 

chosen ; then (may some say) " Farewell to gos- 
pel obedience ; all good works are destroyed. 55 
If, by destroying good works, you mean that the 
doctrine of unconditional election destroys the 
merit of good works, and represents man as in- 
capable of earning or deserving the favour and 
kingdom of God, I acknowledge the force of 
the objection. Predestination does, most cer- 
tainly destroy the merit of our works and obe- 
dience, but not the performance of them : since 
holiness is itself one end of election,^ and the 
elect are as much chosen to intermediate sanctifi- 
cation on their way as they are to that ultimate 
glory which crowns their journey's end :f and 
there is no coming tit the one but through the 
other. So that neither the value, nor the neces- 
sity, nor the practice of good works is superse- 
ded by this glorious truth : our acts of evangeli- 
cal obedience are no more than marshalled, and 
consigned to their due place : restrained from 
usurping that praise which is due to the alone 
grace of God ; and from arrogating that office, 
which only the Son of God was qualified to dis- 
charge. 



* Eph. 1. 4. 

f " Because we deny salvation by our own deeds," says 
one of our good old divines, " the Papists charge us with 
being* enemies to good works. But am I an enemy to a no- 
bleman because I will not attribute to him those honours, 
which are due only to the king ? If I say to a common sol- 
dier in an army, You cannot lead that army against the ene- 
my, will he therefore say, Then I may be gone ; there is no 
need of me ? or if I see a man at his day labour, and say to 
him, You will never be able to purchase an estate of 10,000/. 
per annum by working in that manner ; will he therefore 
give over his work, and say he is discouraged." Mr. Park's 
Comm. on Romans, p. 177. 



23S 

That election as taught by the scriptures (and 
from thence by our reformers,) not only carries a 
favourable aspect on universal piety and holi- 
ness, but even ensures the practice of both, is evi- 
dent among many other passages, from that of 
the apostle, 2 Thess. ii, 1 3. " We are bound to 
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, be- 
loved of the Lord, because God hath from the be- 
ginning,' 5 i. e. from everlasting, " chosen you to 
salvation through" [not for, but through] " sane- 
tification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." 
How very opposite were St. Paul's views of the 
tendency of this doctrine, from those of the Pe- 
lagian and Arminian objectors to it ? They are 
perpetually crying out that it " ruins morality, 
and opens a ready door to licentiousness." He, 
on the contrary, represents the believing consi- 
deration of it as a grand incentive to the exer- 
cise of our graces, and to the observance of mo- 
ral duty. Let us, says he, who are of the day, 
who are enlightened into the knowledge of this 
blessed privilege, and can read our names in the 
book of life ; " Let us, who are thus of the day, 
be sober; putting on the breast-plate of faith 
and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salva- 
tion : for God hath not appointed us to wrath, 
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 
1 Thess. v. 8, 9. Now, if election secures the 
performance of good works, and upon its own 
plan, renders them indispensably necessary, I 
should be glad to know how good works can suf- 
fer by the doctrine of election ? You may as well 
say that the sun^ which now shines into this 
church, is the parent of frost and darkness. No, 
it is the source of light and warmth. And you 
and I want nothing more than a sense of God's 
peculiar, discriminating favour , " shed abroad 
20 



234 

in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us," # to 
render us more and more fruitful in every good 
word and work." As an excellent personf ob- 
serves, " That man's love to God will be with- 
out end, who knows that God's love to him was 
without beginning." 

II. What think you of that fashionable tenet, 
so contrary to sound doctrine, concerning the 
supposed dignity and rectitude of human nature 
in its fallen state ? A doctrine as totally irrecon- 
cilable to reason and fact, as if an expiring leper 
should value himself on the health and beauty of 
his person ; or a ruined bankrupt should boast 
his immensity of wealth. 

As soon as we are born we go astray. Nay, 
I will venture scripture authority to carry the 
point higher still. All mankind are guilty and 
depraved before they are born. " Behold I was 
shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother 
conceive me.":j: A thunderbolt to human pride, 
and a dagger in every heart of natural excellence. 
Thus speaks the bible; and thus experience 
speaks. Our own church likewise delivers her 
judgment in perfect conformity to both. 

Article 9. Of original or birth sirc.— " Ori- 
ginal sin standeth not in the following [or imi- 
tation] of Adam, as the Pelagians § do vainly 



* Rom v. 5. f Dr - Arrowsmith. t Psalm li. 

§ In this article express mention is made of the Pelagians ; 
but nothing is, by name, said of tire Arminians. The reason 
is plain. At the time when our articles passed the two 
houses of convocation in the year 1562, Arminius, who was 
then only two years of age (for he was born A. D. 1560,) 
had not begun to sow his tares : he was no more than a 
schismatic in embryo. Arminianism is a mushroom of latter 
date, than the re -establishment of the Church of England, by 
Elizabeth. It was not till the latter end of her reign, that 
Arminianism had any great footing even in Holland the seat 



235 

talk ; but it is the fault [by imputation] and cor- 
ruption [by internal, hereditary derivation] of 
the nature of every man who naturally is engen- 
dered of the offspring of Adam : whereby man 
is very far gone from original righteousness, and 
is of his own nature inclined to evil; so that the 
flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit. And 
therefore in every person born into this world, 
It," [namely, original or birth sin] " deserveth 
God's wrath and damnation." 

Now what becomes of those plausible, sophis- 
tical similes, which compare the natural mind of 
man to a sheet of w r hite paper ? or to a pliant 
Ozier, which you may bend with ease this way 
or that ? Or to a balance in cvguilibrio, which you 
may incline to either side, according as you 
throw more or less weight into the scale ? Or to 
a wax tablet, on which you may stamp what im- 
pressions you please ? Alas ! The impression is 
already made. The thoughts and purposes of 

of its nativity. I say in Holland, for there this grand corrup- 
tion of the reformation began ; and from thence it found its 
way to England. It was a Dutch wind that blew Arminian- 
ism over to this island many years after our articles were re- 
settled as we now have them. Therefore it is that only Pela- 
gianism is mentioned. However, though Arminianism is 
younger by about 1200 years than Pelagianism, its nature 
and tendency are much the same in fact. The seeming dif- 
ference lies in little more than this : Pelagius spoke out . 
Van Harmin (commonly called Arminius,) with more art but 
less honesty, qualified and disguised the poison, that it might 
not he quite so alarming. Somewhat like what a good man 
remarked long ago, concerning the leaven or false doctrines 
of the Pharisees ; " Christ," says he, " compares the errors 
of the Pharisees to leaven. Why so ? because of its secret 
mixture with the wholesome bread. You do not make your 
bread all of leaven, for then nobody would eat it ; but you 
mingle it skilfully, and by that means both go down together, 
Thus our Lord intimates, that the Pharisees mixed their 
errors with some truths, and therefore he directs them to 
beware, lest with the truths they swallow the errors also," 
GurnalTs Christian Armour, vol. I. p. 104. Octavo edition.^ 



236 

man's heart, previous to regeneration, are (spirit- 
ually considered) only evil and that continually.* 
When converting grace lays hold of us, there is 
not only an heart of flesh to be given, but an 
heart of stone to be taken away.f God must 
not only write his own law on the minds of his 
people ; but must obliterate the law of sin and 
death, which has a prior footing in every man 
that naturally is engendered of the offspring of 
Adam. So much for the spiritual and moral rec- 
titude of man, while unregenerate — What think 
you, 

III. Of conditional redemption P Another mo- 
dish tenet, and no less contrary to reason and 
sound doctrine than the preceding. We are 
gravely told by some that " Christ did indeed 
die, but he did not die absolutely, nor purchase 
forgiveness and eternal life for us certainly : his 
death only puts us into a salvable state ; making 
God placable, and pardon possible." The whole 
efficacy of his sufferings, according to these per- 
sons, depends on our beginning towardly and 
complying : Which if we are, we then come in 
for a share in the subsidiary and supplementary 
merits of Christ; having first qualified our- 
selves for his aid, by a performance of certain 
conditions required on our part, and entitled 
ourselves to the favour and notice of God. — Ac- 
cording to this scheme (which is only the reli- 
gion of nature spoiled— spoiled by an injudi- 
cious mixture of nominal Christianity,) the ado- 
rable Mediator, instead of having actually ob- 
tained eternal redemption^: for his people, and 
secured the blessings of grace and glory to those 
for whom he died : is represented as bequeath- 
ing to them only a few spiritual lottery-tickets 

* Gem. vi. 5. | Ezek. xxxvi. 26. f Heb - ix * 12 ' 



237 

which may come up blanks or prizes, just as the 
wheel of chance and human caprice happens to 
turn. Our own righteousness and endeavours 
must first make the scale of eternal life prepon- 
derate in our favour ; and then the merits of 
Christ are thrown in to make up good weight. 
The Messiah's obedience and sufferings stand, it 
seems for mere cyphers ; till our own free will is 
so kind as to prefix the initial figure, and render 
them of value. I tremble at the shocking con- 
sequences of a system, which (as one well ob- 
serves) considers the whole mediation of Christ 
as no more than u a pedestal on which human 
worth may stand exalted :" nay, (to use the lan- 
guage of another) which "sinks the Son of God 
— how shall I speak it ? — into a spiritual huckster, 
who, having purchased certain blessings of his 
Father, sells them out afterwards to men upon 
terms and conditions." 

But, my brethren, " I hope better things con- 
cerning you; even the things that accompany 
salvation." We have not, I trust, so learned 
Christ: or rather, so mislearned him, and the 
work he came from heaven to accomplish. God 
forbid that we should be found in the number of 
those, who adopt a principle so highly derogato- 
ry from the glory of divine grace, and so deeply 
dishonourable to the great Saviour of sinners. 
To the lawj and to the testimony. How speaks 
St. Paul ? He avers, that Jesus, u By the one 
offering of himself, hath perfected for ever the 
salvation of them that are sanctified."^ And our 
Lord expressly declared in the most solemn 
prayer that ever ascended from earth to heaven, 
44 1 have finished the work which thou gavest me 
to do."f Who then, art thou, O man, that darest 



* Heb, x. 14 f John xviL 4. 

20 * 



238 

lo tack an imaginary supplement of thy own, to 
the finished work of Christ? Such a conduct 
were to charge incarnate Truth with uttering a 
falsehood; and would be equivalent to saying, 
"No, thou didst not finish the work of redemption 
which was given thee to do : Thou didst, indeed 
a part of it, but I myself must add something to 
it, or the whole of thy performance will stand 
for nothing." 

" He appeared once in the end of the world," or 
at the close of the Jewish dispensation, — to do 
what ? to render sin barely pardonable on the 
sinner's fulfilment of previous terms ? No : but 
actually to put away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
self.* The apostle's expression is, that Christ 
appeared, Big ufarqrw uftetgVets, unto the utter abo- 
lition of sin : so that by virtue of his perfect ob- 
lation, sin should neither be charged upon, nor 
eventually mentioned to, those for whom he was 
offered up* "The iniquity of Israel shall be 
sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins 
of Judah, and they shall not he found : for I will 
pardon them whom I reserve. "f In a word, ei- 
ther the death of Christ was not a real and per- 
fect satisfaction for sin ; or, if it was, then upon 
every principle of reason and justice, all that sin 
must be actually forgiven and done away, which 
his death was a true and plenary satisfaction for* 
On the supposition that his redemption was not 
absolute ; it vanishes into no redemption at alh 
Go over, therefore, fairly and squarely, to the te- 
nets of Socinus, or believe that Christ is the 
Lamb of God, who in deed and in truth, beareth 
and taketh away the sins of the world4 

How speaks the church of England, concerning 
this important matter ? I refer you to her. 

* Hefe. i* 26. i Jer. *, 20. * John i. 29. 



230 

31st Article, Of the one oblation of Christ* 
finished upon the cross-~- u The offering of Christ 
once made, is that perfect redemption, propitia- 
tion, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole 
world, both original and actual ; and there is no 
other sacrifice for sin but that alone." 

Do not let that expression, the whole world? 
stumble you. You remember what our Te Deum 
says, u When thou hadst overcome the sharpness 
of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven 
to all believers. 5 ' So in the above article ; The ob- 
lation of Christ once made for all the sins of the 
whole world, i. e. the whole world of believers : 
for God's elect are a w-orld within a world. The 
whole world is a scripture term ; and the compi- 
lers of our articles did well in adopting it. But 
do you imagine that every individual of mankind 
is meant ? surely, no ; for, were redemption thus 
universal, salvation would and must be of equal 
extent : otherwise, either God the Father would 
be unjust, or the blood-shedding of Christ could 
not be (what our articles affirm it to have been) 
a perfect satisfaction for all sin. Let unlimited 
redemption be once proved, and I will take upon 
myself to prove unlimited salvation. 

There are many scripture passages where the 
phrases world, and whole world, are, and must 
be understood in a restricted sense. So, where 
St. Paul thus addresses the Roman converts ; 
44 Your faith is spoken of, or celebrated, through- 
out the whole world," i. e. throughout the 
whole believing world, or christian church i. 
for none but believers would applaud and cele- 
brate the Romans for their faith in Christ. Rom. 
i. 8. " We are of God," says the apostle John, 
44 and the whole world lieth in the wicked one," 
John v. 19. Where, if the whole world denote 
every individual of mankind, it would follow? 



240 

that both the apostle himself, and the Christians 
to whom he wrote, were, at that very time, in 
the wicked one ; and consequently, that he was 
guilty of self-contradiction, in saying, we are of 
God, In the book of Revelations, Satan is sty- 
led the deceiver of the whole world, chap. xii. 9. 
and the whole world are said to wonder after the 
beast, chap. xiii. 3. meaning, a considerable part 
of the world. 

Nay, even in daily conversation, it is custom- 
ary with us to make use of the word world, in a 
limited signification. So when we speak of the 
learned world, the busy world, the gay world, 
the polite world, the religious world, we do not 
mean that every man in the world is learned, bu- 
sy, gay, polite, or religious, we only mean, those 
in the world who are so. 

To close this head. Upon the supposition of 
a random redemption, and a precarious salvation; 
St. Paul's inference, " who shall condemn ? it is 
Christ that died ;" might be easily answered and 
overthrown : since, if the Arminran hypothesis be 
true, millions of those for whom Christ died will 
be condemned ; and what heightens the absurdi- 
ty, condemned on account of those very sins for 
whieh Christ did die. A supposition exploded 
by the apostle as impossible.—- Surely, Christ 
knew for what and for whom he paid the ransom- 
price of his infinitely precious blood ! nor would 
the Father purchase to himself a church of elect 
persons for his own peculiar residence, and then 
leave Satan to run away with as many of the 
beams and pillars as he pleases. Equally con- 
trary to sound doctrine, is, 

IV. The tenet of justification by works. 

All human righteousness is imperfect : and to 
suppose that God, whose judgment is always ac- 
cording to truth, will by a paltry commutation 5 



241 

which he every where disclaims, and which the 
majesty of his law forbids, be put off with not 
only a defective, but even a polluted obedience, 
and justify men by virtue of such a counterfeit 
(at most a partial) conformity to his command- 
ments ; to imagine that the law accommodates 
itself to human depravation, and Chameleon 
like, assumes the complexion of the sinners with 
whom it has to do, is Antinomianism of the gross- 
est kind. It represents the law as hanging out 
false colours, and insisting on perfection, while 
in fact it is little better than a formal patent for 
licentiousness ; and degrades the adorable law- 
giver himself into a conniver at sin. 

Add to this, that if God can consistently with 
his acknowledged attributes, and his avowed de- 
clarations, save guilty, obnoxious creatures, with- 
out their bringing such a complete righteousness 
as the law demands ; it will necessarily follow 
that God, when his hand is in, may save sinners 
without any righteousness at all, since the same 
flexibility, which (as the Arminians suppose) in- 
duces God to dispense with part of his law, may 
go a step farther, and induce him to set aside the 
whole — moreover, if our persons may be justifi- 
ed without a legal (i. e. a perfect) righteousness | 
it will follow on the same principle, that our sins 
may be pardoned without an atonement; and 
then, farewell to the whole scheme of Christianity 
at once. 

There are two grand axioms which enter into 
the very foundation of revealed religion : 

1. That the law will accept no obedience short 
of perfect, as the condition of justification : and, 

2. That ever since Adam's first offence, man 
has, and can have, no such obedience of his own. 

What then must a sinner do to be saved ? He 
must believe in and rest upon that Saviour, whG 



242 

was by gracious imputation " made sin for us, 
that we," by a similar exchange, " might be 
made the righteousness of God in him"* If 
this be the gospel scheme of salvation, the apos- 
tle's assertion will be incontestable : " as many 
of you as are justified by the law," or seek jus- 
tification on the footing of your own works, "are 
fallen from grace,"f revolted and apostatized 
from that gospel system, which teaches that men 
are justified by the grace of God, flowing through 
Christ's righteousness alone.^ Alas ! how hard- 
ly are we brought to accept salvation as a gift of 
mere favour ! We are for bringing a price in our 
hands, and coming with money in our sack's 
mouth : notwithstanding the celestial direction is, 
" Buy wine and milk, without money and with- 
out price ;"§ i. e. take as absolute possession of 
pardon, holiness and eternal life, as if they were 
your own by purchase ; but remember, that you 
nevertheless have them gratis, without any de- 
sert, nay, contrary to all desert of yours — We did 
not bribe God to create us, and how is it possible 
that we should pay him any thing for saving us ? 
Zeuxis, the celebrated Grecian painter, used 
towards the latter part of his life, to give away 
his pictures without deigning to accept of any 
pecuniary recompense. Being asked the reason, 
his answer was, " I make presents of my pic- 
tures because they are too valuable to be purcha- 
sed. They are above all price." — And does not 
God freely give us a part in the book of life, an 
interest in his Son, and a title to his kingdom ; 
nay, does he not make us a present of himself in 
Christ ; because these blessings are literally above 
all price ? too great, too high, too glorious to be 
purchased by the works of man ? Because we 

* 2 Cor. v. f Gal. v. 4, * Rom. v. 21. § Isai. lv. X. 



243 

cannot merit them, God is graciously pleased 
freely to bestow them. It is equally sad and 
astonishing to observe the ingredients of that 
foundation, on which self-justiciaries build their 
hopes of heaven. First, there is a stratum of 
free will ; then, of good dispositions ; then, of 
legal performances; next, a layer of what they 
term divine aids and assistances, ratified and 
made effectual by human compliances ; then, a lit- 
tle of Christ's merits ; then, faithfulness to helps 
received : and, to finish the motley mixture, a 
perseverance of their own spinning. At so 
much pains is a Pharisee, in going about to es- 
tablish his own righteousness, rather than em- 
brace the bible way of salvation, by submitting 
to the righteousness of God the Son.^ 

Now, what says the church of England, con- 
cerning the cause and manner of our acceptance 
with the Father ? Thus she speaks, and thus all 
her real members believe : 

Article IX. Of the justification of man** — 
" We are accounted righteous before God alone 
for the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ." One would imagine this might have 
been enough to establish the point ; but utterly to 
preclude self-righteousness from all possibility of 
access, the church immediately adds, u And not 
for our own works or deservings. 9 ' 

Here the old question naturally recurs, 
" What then becomes of good works ?" The 
plain truth is, that till a man is justified by faith, 
he can do no good works at all. 

Article XIII. Of works done before jus- 
tification* — " Works done before the grace of 
Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not 



* Rom* x. 3, 



244 

pleasant to God :" and, if so, how is it possible 
that he should justify us on account of them ? 
—But, why are they not pleasing to God ? " For- 
asmuch," adds the article, as they spring not 
from faith in Jesus Christ." 

" Well but, may some say, " admitting that 
works done before justification do not properly 
recommend us to God, they may at least qualify 
us for believing ; and thereby be remotely a con- 
dition, sine qua non, of justification." The 
church will not allow even of this. For, treat- 
ing in the above article, of works prior to justi- 
fication, she adds : neither do they make men 
meet to receive grace." This clinches the nail, 
and cuts up self-righteousness, root and branch. 
But does the church stop here \ no : to put the 
whole matter as far beyond doubt as words can 
place it, she closes her decision thus ; " Yea, 
rather, for that they are not done as God hath 
willed and commanded them to be done, we 
doubt not but they have the nature of sin." 
Now, if works wrought previous to justification, 
are sin, it is absolutely impossible that we should 
be justified by works, unless sin can be supposed 
to recommend us to God's favour. Which, to 
imagine, were Antimonianism outright — What 
think you, 

V. Of the doctrine of nnejfectual grace f A 
doctrine which represents Omnipotence itself as 
wishing and trying, and striving to no purpose. 
According to this tenet, God, in endeavouring 
(for it seems it is only an endeavour) to convert 
sinners, may, by sinners, be foiled, defeated, and 
disappointed : — He may lay close and long siege 
to a soul, and that soul can from the citadel of 
impregnable free will, hang out a flag of defiance 
to God himself, and by a continued obstinacy of 
defence* and a few vigorous sallies of free agen- 



245 

cy compel him to raise the siege* In a word, 
the Holy Spirit, after having for years, perhaps, 
danced attendance on the will of man, may at 
last, like a discomfited general, or an unsuccess- 
ful petitioner, be either put to ignominious flight, 
or contemptuously dismissed, re infect a^ without 
accomplishing the end for which he was sent. 

Can then the Lord and giver of life; can he, who, 
like the adorable Son, is God of God and God 
with God ; shall the blessed Spirit of grace, who is 
in glory, equal, and in majesty co-eternal, with 
the other two persons of the Godhead, and has 
all power both in heaven and in earth ;— -shall he 
who hath the key of David ; who openeth and 
no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man open- 
eth ;" # shall he knock at the door of the human 
heart, and leave it at the option of free will to in- 
sult him from the window, and bid him go from, 
whence he came ? Surely, men's eyes must be 
blinded indeed before they can lay down such a 
shocking supposition for a religious aphorism ? 
and even go so far as to declare that unless God 
is vanquished by man, u There can be no such 
thing as virtue or vice, reward or punishment, 
praise or blame f* 

The main root of the error consists greatly in 
not distinguishing between the gospel of grace, 
and the grace of the gospel. The gospel of 
grace may be rejected, but the grace of the gos- 
pel cannot* God's written message in the scrip- 
tures, and his verbal message by his ministers, 
may or may not be listened to ; whence it is re- 
corded, " All the day long have 1 stretched forth 
my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying peo- 
ple."! But when God himself comes and takes 



Rev. ili. f. f Rom. x. 21. 



246 

■the heart into his own hand ; when he speaks 
from heaven to the soul, and makes the gospel of 
grace a channel to convey the grace of the gos- 
pel, the business is effectually done. " If God 
makes a change, who can turn him away ?**# 
Whatsoever he doth, it shall be for ever | no- 
thing can be put to it, nor any thing be taken 
from it ; and God doth it, that men should fear 
before him,"f and acknowledge that the excel- 
lency of converting power is of him and not of 
us4 

A modern schismatic, now living, thought he 
both showed his wit and gravelled his opponents 
in saying, that according to the doctrine of our 
church, u The souls of men can no more vanquish 
the savitig grace of God, than their bodies can 
resist a stroke of lightning." I would ask the 
objector, whether he ever knew of any lightning 
like that which flashed from the Mediator's eye, 
when he turned and looked upon Peter ? and 
something similar is experienced by every con- 
verted person. The Lord turns and looks upon 
a sinner who then relents, and cries out with his 
whole heart, " O Lord, my God, other lords 
besides thee have had dominion over me :" but 
now by thee, through the energy of thy renew- 
ing influence, " will I make mention of thy 
name only."§— " Whom have I in heaven but 
thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire 
in comparison of thee."^j — When God says to the 
heart, seek thou my face : the reply is, and can- 
not but be, " Thy face Lord will I seek." # ^ For 
God,who in the beginning of the creation, com- 



* See the marginal translation of Job xL 10. 

f Eccl. iii. 14. t 2 Cor. iv. 7- § Isai. xxvi. 13= 

fl Psalm lxxiii.^5. -** Psalm xxvii. 8. 



247 

manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
by an exertion of power, equally invincible, and 
as certainly effectual, shined into our hearts, to 
give us the light of the knowledge of God as it 
is manifested in the person and grace of Jesus 
Chris U* Wherefore, then do men say, we are 
lords, and we will come no more unto thee,f 
except we ourselves choose it ? Alas, alas ! did 
the master rest with us we should never choose 
to come to God at all. If we did not first change 
our wills we should never even will that great 
change, that internal regeneration, without which 
no man can see the kingdom of heaven.:): God, 
I am bold to declare, would not have been Lord 
of any hearts now under this roof, had he not, 
by the constraining power of his own love, ef- 
fectually gained them over, and invincibly attach- 
ed them to his blessed self. The glorious and 
Independent Creator made us at first without 
our leave ; and yet, according to the modern sys- 
tem, he must ask and wait for our leave before 
he can make us anew ! 

Do you desire to know the judgment of the 
church upon this point ? You have it in her 
seventeenth Article ; where, speaking of God's 
elect people, she asserts that " They are called, 
according to his purpose, by his Spirit working 
in due season ;" and immediately adds, that 
* 4 they, through grace, obey the calling." God's 
converting call therefore is such as produces obe- 
dience to it; i. e. it is triumphantly efficacious ; 
and rendered successful, not by the will and to- 
wardliness of the person called, but by the pow- 
er and grace of him that calleth. Nay, so far is 
the efficacy of divine influence from being sus« 



* 2 Cor. vi. 6, f Jer. ii. 31. $ John iii. 3, 



248 

pended on any internal or external ability of the 
creature, that in our tenth article, concerning 
free will, the church expresses herself thus ! 
The condition of man since the fall of Adam is 
■such, that he cannot turn, nor even prepare him- 
self by his own natural strength and good 
xvorks, to faith and calling upon God* 

VI. What think you of Antinomianism f 
By Antinomianism, I mean that doctrine which 
teaches, M that believers are released from all ob- 
ligation to observe the moral law as a rule of 
external obedience : that, in consequence of 
Christ's having wrought out a justifying righte- 
ousness for us, we have nothing to do but to sit 
down, eat, drink, and be merry : That the Mes- 
siah's merits supersede the necessity of personal, 
inherent sanctification ; and that all our holiness 
is in him, not in ourselves : that the abounding3 
of divine grace give sanction to the commission 
of sin ; and, in a word, that the whole precep- 
tive law of God is not established, but repealed 
and set aside from the time we believe in Christ.'' 
This is as contrary to sound doctrine as it is to 
sound morals ; and a man need only act up to 
these principles to be a devil incarnate. It is 
impossible, that either the Son of God, who 
came down from heaven to perform and to make 
known his Father's will ; or that the Spirit of 
God, speaking in the scriptures, and acting upon 
the heart, should administer the least encourage- 
ment to negligence and unholiness of life. There- 
fore, that opinion which supposes personal sanc- 
tification to be unnecessary to final glorification, 
stands in direct opposition to every dictate of 
reason, and to every declaration of scripture. 

Indeed, the very nature of election, of faith, 
and of all covenant-grace whatever, renders holi- 
ness absolutely indispensable : forasmuch as« 



249 

without a spiritual and moral resemblance of 
God, there can be no real felicity on earth, nor 
any future enjoyment of heaven • — Suppose we 
appeal to experience ? I speak now to you who 
know in whom ye have believed : to you who 
have received the atonement, and who have been, 
sensibly reconciled unto God by the death of his 
Son. If, at any time ye have been off your guard, 
and suffered to lapse into sin ; how have ye 
felt yourselves afterwards ? ye have gone with 
broken hearts and with broken bones.* Ye 
have found it to be indeed " an evil and a bitter 
thing to depart," though ever so little, "from 
the Lord." Ye know by dismal experience that 
"The way of transgression is hard :" and that 
sin, like EzekiePs roll, is written within and 
without, " with lamentation, and mourning, and 
woe." The gall of bitterness is inseparable from 
the bond of iniquity. Upon the principle, there- 
fore, of mere self-interest, (to go no higher,) a 
true believer cannot help aspiring to holiness ancj 
good works.. 

Heaven must be brought down into the human: 
soul, before the human sou! can be fitted for hea- 
ven. There must, as the schoolmen speak, b#. 
"a congruity and similitude between the faculty 
and the object," i. e. there must be an inward 
meetness for the vision and glory of God, wrought 
in you by his Holy Spirit, in order to render yoi* 
susceptible of those exalted pleasures and the ful- 
ness of joy, which are in his presence, and at hi# 
right hand for ever. Was thy soul, O unconverted 
sinner, to be this moment separated from thy 
body, and even admitted into heaven, (supposing 
it was possible for an unregenerate spirit to en- 



*• PsalnVii 
31 *-' 



250 

ter,) heaven would not be heaven to thee. You 
cannot relish the blessedness of the new Jerusa- 
lem, unless God, in the mean while, make you 
partaker of a nexv nature. The Jb ; ather chose his 
people to salvation ; the Son purchased for them 
the salvation to which they were chosen : and the 
blessed Spirit fits and qualifies them for that 
salvation by his renewing influences : for, as 
a dead man cannot inherit an estate, no more can 
a dead soul (and every soul is spiritually dead ? 
till quickened and born again of the Holy Ghost) 
inherit the kingdom of God. Yet, sanctification 
and holiness of life do not constitute any part of 
our title to the heavenly inheritance, any more 
than mere animal life entitles a man of fortune to 
the estate he enjoys : he could not, indeed, enjoy 
his estate if he did not live ; but his claim to his 
estate arises from some other quarter. In like 
manner, it is not our holiness that entitles us to 
heaven ; though no man can enter heaven without 
holiness. God's gratuitous donation, and Christ's 
meritorious righteousness, constitute our right 
to future glory ; while the Holy Ghost, by in- 
spiring us with spiritual life, of which spiritual 
life good works are the evidences and the act- 
ings) puts us into a real capability of, and fitness 
for, that inheritance of endless happiness, which 
otherwise, we could never, in the very nature of 
things, either possess or enjoy. 

" Let it be observed," says one of the most 
learned and judicious writers of this age, " that 
Christ's active obedience to the law for us, in 
our room and stead, does not exempt us from per- 
sonal obedience to it any more than his sufferings 
and death exempt us from corporal death, or from 
suffering for his sake. It is true indeed, we do 
not suffer and die in the sense he did, to satisfy 
justice^ and atone for sin; so neither do wq. 



251 

yield obedience to the law, m order to obtain 
eternal life by it# By Christ's obedience for us 
we are exempted from obedience to the law in 
this sense : but not from obedience to it as a 
rule of walk and conversation, by which to glori- 
fy God and express our thankfulness to him for 
his abundant mercies." — Travellers inform us, 
that in Turkey the partisans of the several de- 
nominations there are distinguished by the co- 
lour of their shoes ; so that if you meet any per- 
son in the streets, you need only look at his feet 
to know of what religion he is. And may not 
the truth of grace be discerned, to at least an 
high degree of probability, by the life and con- 
versation of those who make a religious profes- 
sion i The man who says that he knows God, 
and in works denies him ; who calls Christ Lord, 
Lord, but does not the thing that he enjoys ; 
whose voice indeed is Jacob's voice, but his 
hands are the hands of * Esau ; resembles our 
Saviour's persecutors and murderers of old, who 
bowed their knees and cried, "Hail, king of the 
Jews !" while they spit in his face, and smote 
him with the palms of their hands. The hypo- 
crite's profession is dark and opaque, but that 
of a real saint is pellucid and transparent. The 



* A very capital painter in London, lately exhibited a piece 
representing a fryar habited in his canonicals. View the 
painting at a distance, and you would think the fryar to be in 
a praying attitude: his hands are clasped together, and held 
horizontally to his breast; his eyes meekly demissed, like 
those of the publican in the gospel; and the good man ap» 
pears to be quite absorbed in humble adoration and devout 
recollection— rBut take a nearer survey and the deception 
vanishes ; the book which seemed to lie before him, !fc disco- 
vered to be a punch bowl, into which the wretch is all the 
while in reality only squeezing a lemon.— How lively a re~~ 
presentation of an hypocrite ! 



2m 

rays of grace in a genuine believer pervade his 
whole behaviour, and are transmitted through all 
the parts of his practical walk. Though every 
moral man is not therefore a Christian, yet every 
Christian is necessarily a moral man. 

When Flaminius, the Roman general, did at 
the isthmian games announce freedom to Greece 
in the name of the senate and people of Rome, 
the transported Greeks received the glorious 
news with such acclamations of gratitude, and 
thunder of applause, that some ravens, which 
were flying over the Stadium, dropped down to the 
earth stunned and senseless : the very games 
and exercises were neglected, and nothing but 
bursting eclats of admiring joy engrossed the 
day*-— So, when the Holy Spirit of consolation 
announces gospel liberty, and eternal redemption 
to the souls of the awakened the love of sin, 
and the ravens of detested lust, fall before his 
sacred influence. Both the toils and the plea- 
sures of the world are regarded as insignificant, 
when set in competition with the one thing need- 
ful. Holy wonder, love and joy quite engage 
the powers of the believer's- mind, during the 
spring-tide consolations of his first manifestive 
espousals ; and a sure foundation is from that 
moment laid for the performance of all those 
good works, which are fruits of salvation by- 
grace. While faith is in exercise, and a sense of 
divine favour is warm upon the heart ; a child 
of God is as much steeled to the allurements of 
sin, as Octavius was cool to the meretricious 
charms of Cleopatra. 

Thus, conscientious obedience, though neither 
the cause nor condition of our justification 
in the sight of God, nor of our admittance into 
his glory ; is, nevertheless, an essential branch 
both of privilege and duty, as well as a necessa* 



253 

ry indication of our acceptance in the beloved. 
This is the point of view in which our church 
considers good works : viz* not as preceding 
conditions of salvation, but as subsequent testi- 
monies and marks of salvation already obtained. 

Article XII. " Of good xvorks. — Albeit 
that good works, which are the fruits of faith, 
and follow after justification, cannot put away 
our sins, and endure the severity of God's judg- 
ment ; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to 
God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a 
true and lively faith : insomuch that by them a 
lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree 
discerned by its fruit." 

VII. What think you concerning the tenet of 
sinless perfection ? which supposes that the very 
inbeing of sin may on earth be totally extermina- 
ted from the hearts of the regenerate ; and that 
believers may here be pure as the angels that 
never fell ; yea, (I tremble at the blasphemy) — 
holy as Christ himself. To hold this heresy is 
the very quintessence of delusion; but to ima- 
gine ourselves really in the state it describes, 
were the very apex of madness. Yet many such 
there are : some such I myself have known. 

Indwelling sin and unholy tempers do most 
certainly receive their death's wound in regene- 
ration ; but they do not quite expire till the re- 
newed soul is taken up from earth to heaven. 
In the mean time, these hated remains of de- 
pravity will too often, like prisoners in a dun- 
geon, crawl toward the windows, (though in 
chains) and shew themselves through the grate. 
Nay, I do not know whether the strivings of in- 
herent corruption for mastery, be not frequently 
more violent in a regenerate person, than even 
in one who is dead in trespasses ; as wild beasts 
are some times the more rampant and furious 



254 

for being wounded. A person of the amplest 
fortune cannot help the harbouring of snakes, 
toads, and other venomous reptiles on his lands ; 
but they will breed, and nestle, and crawl about 
his estate, whether he will or no. All he can do 
is to pursue and kill them, whenever they make 
their appearance ? yet, let him be ever so vigi- 
lant and diligent, there will always be a succes- 
sion of those creatures to exercise his patience 
and engage his industry. So is it with the true 
believer in respect of indwelling sin. 

Would you see a perfect saint ? you " must 
needs go out of the world," then you must go 
to heaven for the sight : forasmuch as there only: 
are " the spirits of just men made perfect."* 
This earth on which we live never bore but three 
sinless persons ; our first parents in the short state 
of innocence ; and Jesus Christ in the days of 
his abode below. Of the whole human race be- 
side, it always was and ever will be true, that 
there " is not a just man upon earth, who doeth. 
good and sinneth not." The most forward and 
towering professors are not always the firmest 
and most solid Christians. Naturalists tell us, 
that the oak is a full century in growing to a 
state of maturity ; yet, though perhaps the slow- 
est it is one of the noblest, the strongest, and 
most useful trees in the world. How prefera- 
ble to the flimsy, water-shooting willow ! 

Our church enters an express caveat against 
the pestilent doctrine of perfection in her 15th 
article entitled, " Of Christ alone without sin :" 
where she thus delivers her judgment ; 

" Christ, in the truth of our nature, was made 
like unto us in all things, sin only excepted, from 



* Heb. xii. J23. 



255 

<which he was clearly void, both in his flesh and. 
his spirit. He came to be a Lamb without spot, 
who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should 
take away the sins of the world ; and sin, as St. 
John saith, was not in him. But all we, the rest 
(although baptized and born again in Christ) yet 
offend in many things ; and if we say we have 
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not 
in us." 

So, it is declared, about the middle of the 
ninth article, that the u infection of nature doth 
remain, yea in them that be regenerated." — Let 
me just mention, 

VIII. One more particular, contrary to sound 
dactrine : I mean the assertion of some who 
would fain persuade us that it is impossible for 
us to receive u knowledge of salvation by the re- 
mission of sin." Such a denial is very opposite 
to the usual tenor of Clod's proceeding with his 
people in all ages. The best believers, and the 
strongest, may indeed have their occasional faint- 
ing- fits of doubt and diffidence, as to their own 
particular interest in Christ: nor should I have 
any great opinion q£ that man's faith, who was 
to tell me that he never had any doubts at all. 
JBut still,, there are golden seasons when the soul 
is on the mount of communion with, God when 
the Spirit of his Son shines into our hearts, and 
gives us boldness and access with confidence by 
the faith of him ;* and when Sunt sine nube 
dies, may be the Christian's exulting motto. 
Moreover, a person who is at all conversant with 
the spiritual life, knows as certainly whether he 
indeed enjoys the light of God's countenance^ 



Ef>h. iii. 12. $ Psalm lsxxix, 15 



256 

or whether he walks in darkness^ as a traveller 
knows whether he travels in sunshine or in rain. 
And, as a great and good mant observes, " It is 
no presumption to read what was God's gracious 
purpose towards us of old, when he, as it were, 
prints his secret thoughts, and makes them legi- 
ble in our effectual calling. In this case we do 
not go up into heaven and pry into God's se- 
crets ; but heaven comes dow T n to us, and reveals 
them." 

It may indeed be objected, that the scripture 
doctrine of assurance, when realized into an ac- 
tual possession of the privilege, " may tend to 
foster pride, and promote carelessness." It can- 
not lead to pride ; for all, who have " tasted that 
the Lord is gracious," know by undubitable ex- 
perience (and one fact speaks louder than a hun- 
dred speculations,) that believers are then lowest 
at God's footstool, where they are highest on 
the mount of assurance. Much indulgence from 
earthly parents may indeed be productive of real 
injury to their children ; but not so are the smiles 
of God; for the sense of his favour sanctifies 
whilst it comforts.— Nor can the knowledge of in- 
terest in his love tend to rela^ the sinews of mo- 
ral diligence, or make us heedless how we behave 
ourselves in his sight. During those exalted mo- 
ments, when grace is in lively exercise, when the 
disciple of Christ experiences 

ci The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy ;" 

corrupt nature (that man of sin w T ithin,) and every 
vile affection, are stricken, as it were, with a tem- 
porary apoplexy : and the believer can no more, 
for the time being, commit wilful sin, than an an- 



* Isai. 1. 10> f Gurnall, Vol. I. p. 127 



257 

gel of light would dip his wings in mud. No : it 
is when we come down from the mount, and mix 
again with the world, that, like Moses, we are 
in danger of breaking the tables of the law. u But 
is it not enthusiasm to talk of holding intercourse 
with God, and of knowing ourselves to be the ob- 
jects of Jiis special love ?" No more enthusiasti- 
cal (so we keep within scripture-bounds) than it is 
for a favourite child to converse with his parents, 
and to know that they have a particular affection 
for him. Neither in the strictest reason and na- 
ture of things, is it at all absurd to believe and 
expect, that God can, and does, and will commu- 
nicate his favour to his people, and " manifest 
himself to them, as he does not to the world"^ 
at large. 

Yet, though God is thus graciously indulgent 
to many of his people, (I believe, to all of them at 
some time or other, between their conversion and 
death) still, if they trespass against him, he will 
not let their offences pass unnoticed nor uncor- 
rected. Though grace itself is inadmissible, the 
comfort of it may be sinned away. Salvation is 
sure to all the redeemed ; but the joy of it may 
be lost. Psalm li. 12. u Great peace have they 
that love thy law," and they only. Holiness and 
consolation are wisely and intimately connected* 
In proportion as we are enabled to live near to 
God, to walk humbly and closely with him, and to 
keep our moral garments clean, we may hope for 
freedom of intercourse with him, and to assure 
our hearts before him,t like the happy believers of 
old, concerning whom it is said, that they walked 
at once in the fear of the Lord, and in the com* 
fort of the Holy Ghost4 



John xiv. 21, 22. f Ibid, iii. 19. % Acts ix. SV 
22 



258 

Let not, however, what has been observed con- 
cerning the blessing of assurance, stumble or dis- 
courage the feeble of God's flock, on whom, for 
reasons wise and good, it may not hitherto have 
fo^n his pleasure to bestow this unspeakable gift. 
The scripture plainly and repeatedly distinguish- 
es between faith ; the assurance of faith ; and 
the full assurance of faith : and the first may ex- 
ist where the other two are not. I know some 
who have for years together been distressed with 
doubts and fears, without a single ray of spirit- 
ual comfort all the while* And yet, I can no 
more doubt of their being true believers, than I 
can question my own existence as a man. I am, 
sure they are possessed not only of faith in its 
lowest degree, but of that which Christ himself 
pronounces great faith:* for they can at least 
say, u Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst 
come under my roof; but speak the word only, 
and thy servant shall be healed." Faith is the 
eye of the soul ; and the eye is said to see almost 
every object but itself: so that you have real 
faith without being able to discern it. Nor will 
God despise the day of small things. Little faith 
goes to heaven no less than great faith ; though 
not so confortably, yet altogether as surely. If 
you come merely as a sinner to Jesus, and throw 
yourself at all events for salvation on his alone 
blood and righteousness, and the grace and pro- 
mise of God in him ; thou art as truly a believer 
as the most triumphant saint that ever lived. 
And, amidst all your weakness, distresses and 
temptations, remember that God will not cast out, 
nor cast off the meanest and unworthiest soul 



* Mat, yiii. 8, 10, 



259 

that seeks salvation only in the name of Jesus 
Christ the righteous. When you cannot follow 
the rock*, the rock shall follow you ; nor ever leave 
you, for so much as a single moment on this side 
the heavenly Canaan. If you feel your absolute 
want of Christ, you may on all occasions, and in 
every exigence, betake yourself to the covenant 
love and faithfulness of God for pardon, sanctifi- 
tion and safety, with the same fulness of right 
and title, as a traveller leans upon his own staff, 
or a weary labourer throws himself upon his own 
bed, or as an opulent nobleman draws upon his 
own banker for whatever sum he wants. — 1 shall 
only detain you farther, while I warn you; 

IX. Against another limb of Arminianism, to- 
tally " contrary to sound doctrine." I mean 
that tenet, which asserts the possibility of falling 
finally from a state of real grace* God does not 
give^ and then take azvay. He does indeed fre- 
quently resume what he only lent ; such as health, 
riches, friends, and other temporal comforts ; but 
what he gives, he gives for ever. In a way of 
grace, " the gifts and calling of God are without 
repentance :" # He will never repent of bestow- 
ing them ; and every attribute he has forbids him 
to revoke them. The blessings of his favour 
are, " That good part which shall not be taken 
from those that have it."t 

A parent of moderate circumstances may give 
his children something to set up with in the world, 
and address them to this effect ; " I have now 
done for you all that is in my power to do, and 
gone as far as my circumstances will allow ; you 
must from henceforward stand on your own feet, 



* Rom. xl. 29. t Luke x, 42, 



260 

and be good husbands of the old stock. The pre- 
servation and improvement of what 1 have given 
you must be left to chance and yourselves." In this 
very view does^ Arminianism represent the great 
Father Almighty. But how does scripture repre- 
sent him ? as saying, " I will never leave thee, or 
forsake thee — Even to your old age, I am he ; 
and even to hoary hairs will I carry you ; I have 
made, and I will bear, even I will carry and will 
deliver you.t — " My sheep hear my voice, and I 
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto 
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, nei- 
ther shall any pluck them out of my hand.":}: In 
a word, if any of God's people can be finally 
lost, it must be occasioned either by their depart- 
ing from God, or by God's departure from them* 
But they are certainly and effectually secure 
against these two, and these only possible sources 
of apostacy. For, thus runs the covenant of 



* Heb. xiii. 5. f Isa. xlvi. 4. 

^ John x. 28. True, said an Arminian schismatic, grown 
gray in the service of error, and who still goes up and down 
sowing his tares, seeking whom he may devour, and com- 
passing sea and land to make proselytes : true, Christ's 
sheep " cannot be plucked forcibly out of his hand by others, 
but they themselves may slip through his hands, and so fall 
into hell, and be eternally lost." They may slip, may they ? 
as if the Mediator, in preserving his people, held only a par- 
cel of eels by the tail ! Is not this a shameless way of slipping 
through a plain text of scripture ? But I would fain ask the 
slippery sophister, how we are to understand that part of the 
last cited passage, which expressly declares concerning 
Christ's people, that they shall never perish? since, perish 
they necessarily must, and certainly would, if eventually se- 
parated from Christ ; whether they were to be plucked out of 
his hands, or whether they were only to slip through them. I 
conclude then, that the promise made to the saints that they 
shall never perish, secures them equally against the possibili- 
ty of being either wrested from Christ's hand, or of their own 
falling from it ; since, could one or other be the case, perish 
they must, and Christ's promise would fall to the ground. 



261 

grace ; u I will make an everlasting covenant 
with them, that I will not turn away from them, 
to do them good ; and I will put my fear in their 
hearts, that they shall not depart from me, Jer, 
xxxii. 40. Now, if God will neither leave them 
nor suffer them to leave him ; their final perse- 
verance in grace to glory must be certain and in- 
fallible. 

Having greatly exceeded the limits I designed, 
I shall forbear to adduce the attestations of the 
church of England to the doctrines of assurance 
and preseverance ; especially, seeing I have done 
this somewhat largely elsewhere.*— I must not 
however conclude without observing, That irre- 
versible justification on God's part, and subjec- 
tive assurance of indefectibility on ours, do by no 
means invest an offending Christian with immu- 
nity from sufferings and chastisement. Thus 
Nathan said to David, " The Lord hath put 
away thy sins ; thou shalt not die ;" yet was he 
severely scourged though not disinherited for his 
transgressions. The tenor of God's immutable 
covenant with the Messiah, and with his people 
in him, is this : " His seed will I make to endure 
for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 
If his children forsake my law, and walk not in 
my judgments ? if they break my statutes, and 
keep not my commandments ; then will I visit 
their transgression with the rod, and their iniqui- 
ty with stripes ; nevertheless, my loving-kind- 
ness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer 
my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not 
break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my 



* In a pamphlet entitled, the church of England vindicated 
from the charge of Jlrminia?iism : where, concerning" the 
doctrine of assurance, seepages 125, 126; and, concerning 
the doctrine of perseverance, see pag^s 127—130. 
J . 22 * 



262 

lips. I have sworn once for all by my holiness, 
that I will not lie unto" Jesus the anti-typical 
David, by suffering any of his redeemed people 
to perish. 5 ^ Hence, as it is presently added, they 
shall be established for ever, as the moon ; and 
as the faithful witness in heaven ; nay, they shall 
stand forth and shine, when the sun is turned into 
darkness, and the moon into blood ; when the 
stars shall drop from their orbits, and the pow- 
ers of heaven shall be shaken. As an excellent 
person somewhere observes, " Our own unbe- 
lief may occasionally tear the copies of the cove- 
nant given us by Christ, but unbelief cannot come 
at the covenant itself. Christ keeps the original 
deed in heaven with himself where it can never 
be lost." 

Upon the whole : are these things so ? then, 

1. How great and how deplorable is the gene- 
ral departure from the scripture doctrines of the 
church of England, and the first principles of 
the reformation ! 

2. How blessed are the eyes that see, how 
happy are the hearts that feel, the propriety and 
the energy of these inestimable truths ! And, 

3. How ought such to demonstrate their gra- 
titude by a practical glorification of God in their 
bodies and in their spirits, which are his ! Re- 
semble thunder in your boldness for God, and 
your zeal for truth ; but let your lives shine as 
lightning, and flash conviction in the faces of 
those who falsely accuse your good conversation 
in Christ, and as falsely charge the doctrines of 
God with a licentious tendency. — But let not 
your zeal be of the inflammatory kind ; let it be 
tempered with unbounded moderation, gentle- 
ness and benevolence ; and shine forth as the 



Tsalm lxxxix. 29, 35. 



263 

sun with healing in its wings. Remember who 
it is that hath made you to differ from others ; 
and that u a man can receive nothing except it 
be given him from heaven." John iii. 27. 

, Not unto us, therefore, O Lord, not unto us, 
but to thy name alone be the praise of every 
gift, and of every grace ascribed ; for thy loving 
mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Amen. 



POSTSCRIPT* 



TO THE 

PARISHIONERS OF ST. MATTHEW," 
BETHjYAL GREEN. 

Gentlemen, 

BEFORE the preceding sermon could get 
through the press, the Rev. Mr, Haddon Smith, 
who, it seems, serves you as curate, has thought 
proper to publish a discourse which he delivered 
in opposition to this, the Sunday after I had the 
honour of preaching it before you. 

It would render that unthinking, but I would 
hope well-meaning gentleman, much too consi- 
derable, were I either to address him by name, 
or descend to canvass a performance, wherein 
heat and scurrility endeavour to supply the total 
vacuity of argument.— For Mr« Smith to enter 



264 

the lists with such exceeding fierceness against a 
sermon which he did not hear, and which, hither- 
to, he has had no possible opportunity of read- 
ing, discovers a weakness and temerity in him, 
which sink him as low beneath my notice, as the 
established doctrines of our excellent church rise 
superior to his impotence of censure.— When 
the gentleman shall appear to have at all consi- 
dered the important articles of faith, on which 
he has presumed to animadvert ; when the sails 
of his furious zeal shall be counterballasted by 
some little degree of judgment, and when he has 
learned to express himself, if not with Christian 
decency, yet with common grammatical propri- 
ety, then, and not till then, shall I deem him a 
proper object of attention. 

You, gentlemen, can testify, that I never once 
appeared in your pulpit but at your own particu- 
lar request; a request which I could not possi- 
bly have any interested motives for complying 
with, as I never accepted of the smallest gratuity 
for my attendance. Is it for this that the enra- 
ged curate has repeatedly traduced me from the 
pulpit, and now insults me from the press ? 

For my own part, I am so far from entertain- 
ing any resentment against Mr. Smith, (with 
whom I do not remember to have exchanged 
five words in my life, and whom I should not 
even know at sight,) or from being deterred by his 
unmerited abuse, that should I live to see Lon- 
don again, I shall always deem myself happy to 
wait on you as usual, whenever either your own 
desire or the interest of your public charity may 
command. And as so many of you have fa- 
voured me with uncommon civility and atten- 
tion, I am encouraged to offer one request ; a 
request not in behalf of myself, but of Mr. 
Smith i viz;* that his ill-judged and unbecoming 



265 

warmth may not so far alienate your affection 
from his person, as to make you persist in with- 
drawing those usual proofs of your beneficence, 
which formerly you have favoured him with, and 
which, I am sorry to be informed, have of late, 
through his defect of candour and humility, been 
considerably lessened. 

My sermon and his are now before the public. 
The rashness and seeming malignity with which 
he appears desirous to plunge into the depths of an 
Unequal contest, might, in the opinion of some, jus- 
tify me in the amplest severity of animadversion. 
But I spare him. I cannot prevail with myself 
to render u evil for evil, or railing for railing." 
On the contrary, I wish and pray that divine 
grace may cause him to partake of the " mind 
which was in Christ Jesus;" and that he may 
by the same Almighty influence, be made to ex- 
perience, to believe, and to preach, the inestima- 
ble truths of that gospel which Jesus taught. 

Mr. John Wesley, (on whose plan of doctrine 
your curate seems in great measure to have form- 
ed his own) is the only opponent I ever had, 
whom I chastised with a studious disregard to 
ceremony. Nor do I in the least repent of the 
manner in which I treated him. To have refu- 
ted the forgeries and perversions of such an as- 
sailant tenderly, and with meekness, falsely so 
called ; would have been like shooting at a high- 
wayman with a pop-gun, or like repelling the 
sword of an assassin with a straw. I rather 
blame myself, on a review, for handling Mr. 
Wesley too gently, and for not acquainting the 
world with all I know concerning the man and 
his communication. I only gave him the zvliip^ 
when he deserved a scorpion. 

But as to Mr. Smith, he hitherto, amidst all 
his ignorance and unguardedness ? merits a milder 



266 

treatment. Want of talents and of thought ap- 
pear in every paragraph of his sermon : but I 
am willing to believe him not wholly destitute of 
integrity. Though he opposes the doctrines of 
the church of England with virulence, yet he 
seems to do so from principle. Under this per- 
suasion, I at present give him rope* Hereafter, 
should he rise into any thing like a respectable 
antagonist, I may, perhaps, hook him, and pull 
him in — Till then I take my leave both of the 
curate and of his preachment, w r ith that justly ad- 
mired line, which is at once equally picturesque 
of his behaviour, and expressive of my fixed de- 
termination. 

Du loqueris Lapides Ego Byssina Verba repo- 
nam. 

I am, with much respect and regard, 
Gentlemen, 

Your obliged and obedient servant, 

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, 

Mroad-Hembury, Jug* 31 3 1770. 



LETTER 

TO THE 

REV. JOHN WESLEY; 

UELATJVE TO HIS PRETENDED 

ABRIDGMENT OF 

ZANCHIUS ON PREDESTINATION* 

— *-*feftft&- 

BY AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, A. B, 

VICAR. OF BROAD-HEMBURY, DEVON. 
— ^Rftftft 



Sic fatus senior, Telumque imbelle fine Ictu 
Conjecit: rauco quod protinus aere repulsunij 
Ec summo Clypei nequicquam Umbone pepeadit. 

JEneid IL 
Credulitate, puer; Audacia, juvenis; Delirius, senex. 
Mr. De Boze's Epitaph onHardovin y the French Jesu\$* 



NEW-YORK* 

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE LINDSAY, 

Paul €? Thomas, Printer}, 
1811. 



ADVERTISEMENT 



PRESENT EDITION. 



JlN INE months are now elapsed since the first publication 
of this letter: in all which time, Mr. W. has neither apolo- 
gized for the misdemeanor which occasioned his hearing 1 
from me in this public manner, nor attempted to answer the 
charge entered against him. Judging", probably, that the 
former would be too condescending in one who has erected 
himself into the leader of a sect ; and that the latter would 
prove rather too difficult a task, and involve him in a subse- 
quent train of fresh detections ; he has prudently omitted 
both 

Some of his followers, however, have not been so tamely 
unactive on this occasion as their pastor. Anxious at once 
to palliate his offence, and to screen his timidity ; several 
penny and two-penny defences have successively appeared : 
wherein the anonymous scribblers wretchedly endeavoured 
to gather up, and put together, the fragments of a shattered 
reputation. The very printers, the midwives who handed 
these " insects of a day" into public existence, were asha- 
med to subjoin their names at the bottom of the title pages. 

Two Lay-Preachers, in particular, have feebly taken up 
the cudgels for their master. OF one I shall say very little, 
as he writes with some degree of decency — Of the other, I 
shall not say much ; for both his talents and his morals sink 
him far below the dignity of chastisement. This illiterate 
" haberdasher of small wares" entitles his penny effusion, as 
well as I remember, " A letter of thanks to the Rev. Mr. 
Toplady, in the names of all the hardened sinners in London 
and Westminster." The poor creature, it is plain from his 
title-page, aims at humour ; and yet unhappily for such a de- 
sign, he is in reality but too literally qualified "to act as a sec- 
retary in chief to the sinners of London and Westminster. 
For he has given very numerous and ample proofs of his 
23 



270 

own sinnership, and that there can hardly exist in those two 
cities a more atrocious sinner than himself. I will not pol- 
lute this paper with a recital of his crimes. They who 
know the man are no strangers to his communication. 
Though a doctrinal Pharisee, his life has long ago evinced 
him a practical Sadducee. Surely, Arminianism is like to 
flourish mainly under the auspices of such able and virtu- 
ous advocates ! 
And so much for Mr. Wesley's redoubtable subalterns. 

" What image of their fury can we form ? 
Dulness and rage. A puddle in a storm." 

If my advice carries any weight with them, they will care= 
fully peruse their Spelling-books, before they make another 
sally from the press. As to themselves, and their refined 
productions, I mean to take no farther notice of either. I 
am quite of Mr. Gay's opinion ; 

" To shoot at crows is powder thrown away." 

I had almost forgot the Monthly Reviewers. One word 
concerning them, and I have done. The two Reverend gen- 
tlemen who are hired to dissect and characterize whatever 
comes within the divinity department, a Caiendis ad Calendas ; 
would fain have it, in their superficial strictures on the first 
edition of this letter, that I am angry with Mr. Wesley. If 
by anger the ingenious animadverters mean a just and be- 
coming disapprobation of Mr. Wesley's lying abridgment, and 
of the surreptitious manner in which he smuggled it into the 
world ; I acknowledge myself in this respect angry. I hope 
the Reverend Reviewers will not in their turn be angry too, 
at seeing themselves tacked to the list of Mr. Wesley's al- 
lies : since in their mode of representing my dispute (or to 
adopt their own military term, my battle) with that gentle- 
man, they seem to rank themselves in the number of his 
seconds. The reason is obvious. Mr. W. is a red-hot Ar- 
minian : and the sagacious Doctors can discern, with half an 
eye, that Arminianism lies w T ithin a bow-shot of Socinianism 
and Deism. Yet notwithstanding the alliance is thus not al- 
together unnatural, w T hy should these two Divines, who are 
certainiy possessed of abilities which might do honour to 
human nature, by a narrow, sordid attachment to party, ren- 
der those abilities less respectable ? 

Broad-Hamburg Jan. 9, 1772. 



LETTER 

TO THE 

REV. JOHN WESLEY* 
Sir, 

POSSIBLY, the following letter may fall into 
the hands of some who are unacquainted with the 
merits of the occasion on which I write. For 
the information of such, I must premise, that in 
November, 1769, I published a two shilling- 
pamphlet, entitled. " The Doctrine of Absolute 
Predestination stated and asserted : With a 
Preliminary discourse on the Divine Attributes. 
Translated, in great measure, from the Latin of 
Jerom Zanchius." 

Though you are neither mentioned nor alluded 
to throughout the whole book, yet it could 
hardly be imagined, that a treatise, apparently 
tending to lay the axe to the root of those per- 
nicious doctrines, which, for more than thirty 
years past you have endeavoured to palm on 
your credulous followers, with all the sophistry of 
a Jesuit, and the dictatorial authority of a Pope ; 
should long pass without some censure from 
the hand of a restless Arminian, who has so ea- 
gerly endeavoured to distinguish himself, as the 
bell-wether of his deluded thousands. 



272 

Accordingly in the month of March, 17r& ? 
QUt sneaks a printed paper (consisting of one 
sheet, folded into twelve pages, price one penny) 
entitled, " The Doctrine of Absolute Predesti- 
nation stated and asserted by the Rev. Mr. 

A. T ." Wherein you pretend to give 

an abridgment of the pamphlet above referred 
to. But, 

I. Why did you not make your abridgment 
truly public ? For an apparent reason : That, if 
possible, it might elude my knowledge, and so 
escape the rod. Born of a stolen embrace, it 
was needful for the spurious, pusillanimous 
performance to steal its way into the world. It 
privately crept abroad from the' Foundry, the 
seat of its nativity; it was sold indeed, but sold 
under the rose ; it was carefully circulated in the 
dark ; and the friends of Mr. Wesley were 
designed to be the sole sphere of its acquaint- 
ance. Thus " Every one that doeth evil hateth 
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his 
deeds should be reproved." In such conduct I 
can discern much of the Jesuit, but nothing of 
the saint. I had to this hour remained unap- 
prized of the secret stab, but for the information 
received from some of superior integrity to your- 
self.- — I will put Christianity quite out of the 
question, and suppose it to have no kind of in- 
fluence. But should you not, at least, act as a 
man of common honour ? Come forth openly, 
Sir, in future, like an honest, generous assailant ; 
and, from this moment forward, disdain to act 
the ignoble part of a lurking, sly assassin. 

II. Why did you not abridge me faithfully 
and fairly ? Why must you lard your ridiculous 
compendium with additions and interpolations of 
your own ? especially as you took the libertv of 



273 

prefixing my name to it? your reasons are obvi- 
ous. My publication had spread among some 
of your people ; and the longer it continued to 
diffuse itself the more you trembled for your Dia- 
na. Hence, Demetrius like, you found it need- 
ful, by the help of a pious fraud, to prejudice 
your Ephesians against the doctrines of St. Paul. 
The book was like to give the Arminian Babel a 
shake ; therefore no way so effectual to secure it, 
as by endeavouring to spike the canon which 
was planted against it.. That you might seem to 
gratify the curiosity of your partisans, and keep 
them really hood-winked at the same time, you 
draw up a flimsy, partial compendium of Zan- 
chius; a compendium which exhibits a few de- 
tached propositions, placed in the most disadvan- 
tageous point of view,, and without including any 
part of the evidences on which they stand. 

But this alone was not sufficient to compass 
the desired end. Unsatisfied with carefully and 
totally suppressing every proof alleged by Zan- 
chius in support of his argument, a false co- 
louring must likewise be superinduced, by insert- 
ing a sentence or two, now and then, of your own 
foisting in. After which you close the motley 
piece, with an entire paragraph, forged every 
word of it by yourself; and conclude all, as you 
began, with subjoining the initials of my name ;. 
to make the ignorant believe, that the whole, with 
your omissions, additions, and alterations, actu- 
ally came from me, An instance of audacity 
and falsehood hardly to be paralleled ! 

I am very far from desiring the reader to take 
my word in proof of the charge alleged against 
you. As an instance of your want of honour, 
veracity, and justice, I refer to the following 
paragraph, 1. As published by me ; and 2. As 
quoted by you. 

23 * • 



274 



** When all the trans- 
actions of Providence 
and grace are wound up 
in the last day ; he 
(Christ) will then pro- 
perly sit as Judge, and 
openly publish and so- 
lemnly ratify, if I may 
so say, his everlasting 
decrees, by receiving 
the elect, body and soul, 
into glory : and by pass- 
ing sentence on the non- 
elect (iiot for having 
done what they could 
not help, but) for their 
wilful ignorance of di- 
vine things, and their 
obstinate unbelief; for 
their omissions of mo- 
ral duty, and for their 
repeated iniquities and 
transgressions. 5 ' Boctr. 
of Abs. Pred. page 93. 



2. 
u In the last day 
Christ will sit as Judge, 
and openly publish 
and solemnly ratify his 
everlasting decrees, by 
receiving the elect in- 
to glory, and by pass- 
ing sentence on the 
non-elect, {not for ha- 
ving done what they 
could not help, but) for 
their wilful ignorance 
of divine things, and 
their obstinate unbelief; 
for their omissions of 
moral duty, and for their 
repeated iniquities and 
transgressions which 
they could not help"' 
Wesley's Abridgment, 
page 9* 



Whether my view of the doctrine itself be, m 
fact, right or wrong, is no part of the present in- 
quiry : the question is, have you quoted me fair- 
ly ? Blush, Mr. Wesley, if you are capable of 
blushing. For once publicly acknowledge your- 
self to have acted criminally : " Unless," to use 
your own words on another occasion, u Shame 
and you have shook hands and parted." 

Your concluding paragraph, which you have 
the effrontery to palm on the world as.mine,rw& 



275 

thus : *"The sum of all this : One in twenty (sup- 
pose) of mankind are elected ; nineteen in twen*- 
ty are reprobated. The elect shall be saved, do 
what they will ; the reprobate shall be damned, 
do what they can. Reader, believe this, or be 
damned. Witness my hand, A T ." 

In almost any other case, a similar forgery 
would transmit the criminal to Virginia or Ma- 
ryland, if not to Tyburn. If such an opponent 
can be deemed an honest man, where shall we find 
a knave ? — What would you think of me, was I 
infamous enough to abridge any treatise of yours, 
sprinkle it with interpolations, and conclude it 
thus : " Reader, buy this book or be damned. 
Witness my hand, John Wesley !" 

And is it thus you contend for victory ? are 
these the weapons of your warfare ? Is this 
bearing down those who differ from you with 
meekness ? Do you call this binding with cord3 
of love : Away, for shame, with such disinge- 
nuous artifices. At least endeavour to conceal 
that narrow, sectarian spirit, which betrays itself^ 
more or less, in almost every thing you write* 
Renounce the low, serpentine cunning, which 
puts you on falsifying what you find yourself 
unable to refute. And as you regard your cha- 
racter, and the cause you espouse, dismiss those 
dirty subterfuges, (the last resources of meai>, 
malicious impotence) which degrade the man of 
parts into a lying sophister, and sink a divine be- 
neath the level of an oyster-woman. Cease to 
fight, like the French, with old nails and broken 
glass. Charge fairly, and fire as forcible as you 
can. But, if you persist to employ the weapons 
of scurrility and falsehood ; the splinters will not 



* Wesley's Abridgment, page \% 



276 

only recoil on yourself, but you will continue to 
be posted for a theological coward. 

And why should you of all people in the 
world, be so very angry with the doctrines of 
grace ? Forget not the days and months that are 
past. Remember that it once depended on the 
toss of a shilling, whether y r ou yourself should 
be a Calvinist or an Arminian. Tails fell up- 
permost, and you resolved to be an Universalist. 
'Twas an happy throw which consigned you to 
the tents of Arminius ; for it saved us from 
the company of a man, who, by a kind of reli- 
gious gambling, peculiarly his own, risqued his 
faith on the most contemptible of all lots ; and 
was capable of tossing up for his creed, as port- 
ers or chairmen toss up for an halfpenny. 

I have read of princes and other eminent per-* 
sons who, having risen from ignoble life to great- 
ness, took care to have some striking memorials 
of their former obscurity frequently in their 
view, by way of a counterpoise to pride, and as 
a preservative from being exalted above mea- 
sure. When, from the pinnacle or your own im- 
portance, you look down upon the advocates for 
free grace, and consider them as reptiles, to be 
treated as you please, only recollect the hum- 
bling circumstance of which I have just remind- 
ed you ; and repress the complacent swellings of 
self-adulation, by some such soliloquy as this ; 
" I have been in danger myself of believing 
that St. Paul says true, when he declares that 
God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy. 
How precious was the shilling, and above all, 
how lucky was the throw, which convinced me 
of St. Paul's mistake!" Forgive us, if we as 
implicitly determine our faith by the scriptures, 
as you determined yours by the fall of the splen- 
did shilling. 



277 

But, even since this memorable epocha^ you 
have by no means proved yourself that steady 
Arminian you would have the world believe. 
Proteus like, you disdain to be shackled and cir- 
cumscribed by any certain form. Her ladyship 
of Loretto, though she has a different suit for 
every day in the year, is semper eadem, when 
compared with the quondam Fellow of Lincoln 
College. There are times when you vary as 
much from your preceding self, as you do at all 
times from the rest of mankind. Possessed of 
more than serpentine elability, you cast your 
slough, not once a year, but almost once an hour. 
Hence your innumerable inconsistencies, and fla- 
grant self-contradictions, the jarring of your 
principles (ever at intestine war with each other) 
and the incoherence of your religious system. 
Your scheme of doctrines reminds me of the 
feet of a certain visionary image, which as the 
sacred penman acquaints, seemed to be compo- 
sed of iron and clay ; heterogeneous materials, 
which may indeed be put together, but will ne- 
ver incorporate with each other. Somewhat like 
the necromantic soup, of which you have proba- 
bly read in the tragedy of Macbeth ; your doc- 
trines may be stirred into a chaotic jumble, but 
witchcraft itself would strive in vain to bring 
them into coalition. On the contrary, evangeli- 
cal truth knows nothing of this Harlequin as- 
semblage. It is not, like Joseph's coat, of many 
colours, nor made up of a patch from Donatus, 
of another from Pelagius, and a third from 
Arminius : but is invariably simple, uniform 
and harmonious ; resembling the robe of its ado- 
rable teacher, which was without seam, and wo- 
ven from the top throughout. 

On one occasion, you had the candour to own 
your levity as to points of faith. I am acquaint- 



278 

eel with a very respectable person (Mr. J. D.) 
who, not many years ago, taking the freedom to 
tell you, that u Your prejudices, like armed men, 
stood with their swords ready drawn, to guard 
all the passes of conviction, and hew down every 
truth as fast as it presented itself to your mind ;" 
you had the usual honesty to answer, " Ah ! 
Sir, if you knew how distressed I have been, 
what doctrines I should embrace, and how I 
have been tossed about from system to system, 
you'd think me the most open to conviction, and 
the least liable to prejudice, of any man you 
ever knew." This answer did you real honour, 
for I am persuaded you spoke true. Yet, why 
should you, who have been so remarkably tossed 
about, take upon you to revile those who have 
been enabled to stand fast? I hope for your own 
sake, that you will never cease tossing about till 
you have gained the harbour of truth ; and that, 
amidst all your manifold shifting from system to 
system, you will at length be enabled to fix on 
the only right system, which asserts the lawful- 
ness of God's doing what he will with his own. 
I am told, the penny-sheet (which occasions 
this free address) is to be followed some time 
hence, by a four-penny pamphlet against Zan- 
chius ; wherein you are to besiege the doctrine 
of predestination in form. Commence the siege 
and welcome. Open your trenches and plant 
your batteries. Bring forth your strong argu- 
ments, and play them off with vigour. I pub- 
licly profess and subscribe my name to it, that, 
if I cannot beat you back, I'll freely capitulate, 
and own myself conquered. But remember, that 
if you would do any thing to purpose, you must 
make a regular attack. You must encounter the 
whole of Zanchius, and take his arguments in 
their regular connexion and dependency on each 



279 

other. You must go through with my preface, 
which I prefixed to my translation of that great 
man. Having carried and dismantled the out- 
work, you must next proceed to demolish the Dis- 
sertation on the Divine Attributes ; which ha- 
ving destroyed, you are then to assail the cita- 
del ; I tnean, those five stubborn chapters, which 
make up the body of the treatise itself. All 
the allies, or the arguments drawn from scripture 
and reason, must likewise be put to the sword* 
This should you attempt to do in a manner wor- 
thy of a scholar and a divine, I shall have no 
objection (if life and health continue) to mea- 
suring swords, or breaking a pike with you. 
Controversy, properly conducted, is a friend to 
truth, and no enemy to benevolence. When the 
flint and the steel are in conflict, some sparks 
may issue which may both warm and enlighten. 
But I have no notion of encountering a wind- 
mill in lieu of a giant. If, therefore, you come 
against me (as now) with straws instead of ar- 
tillery ; and with chaff in the room of ammuni- 
tion ; I shall disdain to give you battle : I shall 
only laugh at you from the ramparts. 

Much less, if you descend to your customary 
recourse of false quotations, despicable invec- 
tive, and unsupported dogmatisms, shall I hold 
myself obliged to again enter the list with you. 
An opponent who thinks to add weight to his 
arguments by scurrility and abuse, resem- 
bles the insane person, who rolled himself in 
mud in order to make himself fine. I would 
no more enter into a formal controversy with 
such a scribbler, than I would contend for the 
wall with a chimney-sweeper. 

When some of your friends gave out, two or 
three months before your late doughty publica- 
tion, that Mr. Jx>hn (as they call you) was shut- 



280 

ting himself up,* in order to answer the Trans- 
lator of Zanchius ; I really imagined that some- 
thing tolerably respectable was going to make its 
appearance. But 

Quid dignum tanto tulit hie Promissory Hiatu f 

After the teeming mountain had been shut up 
a competent time, long enough to have been 
brought to bed of an Hercules, forth creeps a 
puny, toothless mouse, a mouse of heterogene- 
ous kind ; having little more than its head and 
tailf from you; and the main of its body made 
up of some mangled, castrated citations from 
Zanchius. 

Currente Rota^ cur Urceus exit ? 

If I may judge of the future by the past, and 
unless you amend greatly in a short time, your 
four-penny Supplement, when it appears, will be 
no less inconsiderable than the penny sheet al- 
ready extant. And, as the mouse is not cheap 
at a penny, I am very apprehensive, the rat, 
when it ventures out, will be too dear at a groat. 

Hitherto, your treatment of Zanchius resem- 
bles that of some clumsy, bungling anatomist, 
who, in the dissection of an animal, dwells much 
on the larger and more obvious particulars ; but 
quite omits the nerves, the lymphatics, the mus- 
cles, and the most interesting parts of the com- 
plicate machine. Thus, in your piddling extract 

* Dreadful his thunder, while unprinted, roar ; 

But when once publish'd, they are heard no more. 

So, distant bug-bears fright ; but nearer draw, 

The -block's a block, and turns to mirth your awe. 

Dr. Yotjnc 

| The Advertisement, on the back-side of Mr. WesleyV 
Title -page : and his concluding" Paragraph, p. 1.2 



281 

from the pamphlet you have thought proper to 
cm-tail, you only give a few of the larger out- 
lines, without at all entering into the spirit 
of the subject, or so much as producing (so far 
from attempting to refute) any of the turning 
points, on which the argument depends. Wrench 
the finest eye that ever shone in a lady's head, 
from its socket, and it will appear frightful and 
deformed ; whereas, in its natural connexion, the 
symmetry and brilliancy, the expressiveness and 
the beauty, are conspicuous. So it often fares 
with authors. A detached sentence, artfully mis- 
placed, or unseasonably introduced ; maliciously 
applied, or unfairly cited ; may appear to carry 
an idea the very reverse of its real meaning. 
But replace the dislocated passage, and its pro- 
priety and importance are restored. I would 
wish every unprejudiced person, into whose hands 
your Abridgment of my translation has fallen, 
to suspend his judgment concerning it, till he 
sees the translation itself. On comparing the 
two together, he will at once perceive how can- 
did and honest you are ; and what quantity of 
confidence may be reposed on your integrity as 
a citer. 

When I advert to the unjust and indecent man- 
ner in which you attacked the late Mr. Hervey ; 
above all, when I consider how daringly free you 
have made with the scriptures themselves, both 
in your commentaries, and in your ^Iterations of 
the text itself ,• I cease to wonder at the auda- 
cious licentiousness of your pen respecting me. 
I should rather wonder, if you treated any oppo- 
nent with equity, or canvassed any subject im- 
partially. Rise but once to this, and I shall both 
wonder and rejoice. 

You give me to understand^ that I am but " a 
young translator." Granted. Better, however, 
24 



282 

to be a young translator, than an old plagiary. 
Which of our ancient divines have you not eva- 
porated and spoiled ? and made them speak a lan- 
guage, when dead, which they would have start- 
ed from, with horror, when alive I* 

" Yet Brutus is an honourable man." 

How* miserably have you pillaged even my pub- 
lication ? Books, when sent into the world, are 
no doubt, in some sense, public property. Zan- 
chius, if you chose to buy him, was yours to 
read ; and, if you thought yourself equal to the 
undertaking, was yours to answer : but he was 
not yours to mangle. Remember how narrowly 
you escaped a prosecution some years ago, for 
pirating the poems of Dr. Young. 

I would wish you to keep your hands from li- 
terary picking and stealing. However, if you 
cannot refrain from this kind of stealth, you can 
abstain from murdering what you steal. You 
ought not, with Ahab, to kill, as well as take pos- 
session ; nor giant like, to strew the area of your 
den with the bones of such authors as you have 
seized and slain. 

On most occasions you are too prone to set up 
your own infallible judgment as the very lapis ly- 
dius of right and wrong. Hence the firebrands, 
arrows, and death, which you hurl at thQse w r ho 
presume to vary from the oracles you dictate. 
Hence, particularly, your illiberal and malevo- 
lent spleen against the Protestant Dissenters ;j 
though yourself are, in many respects, a Dissen- 



* See almost every part of what Mr. Wesley miscalls, The 
Christian Library. 

f '• How little is the case mended at the meeting ? either 
the teachers are new-light men, denying the Lord that 
bought them ; or they Ve Predestinarians, and so preach pre- 



283 

tcr of the worst kind. I would not, however, by 
this declaration, be understood, as if I meant to 
dishonour that respectable body, by classing you 
with them ; for you stand alone, and are a Dis- 
senter of a cast peculiar to yourself. And yet, like 
Henry I. you are for making the length of your 
own arm the standard-measure for every body 
else. No wonder, therefore, that you eminently 
inherit the fate of Ishmael : that your " hand 
is against every man, and every man's hand 
against you." Strange ! that one who pleads so 
strenuously for universal love in the Deity, 
should adopt so little of the love for which. he 
pleads ! That a person of principles so large, 
should have an heart so narrow ! Bigots of eve- 



destination and final perseverance, more or less. Nor is It 
expedient for any Methodist Preacher, to imitate the Dissen- 
ters in their manner of praying; either in his tone, or 
in his language, or in the length of his prayer. Neither 
should we sing like them, in a slow, drawling manner. We 
sing swift, both because it saves time, and because it tends to 
awaken and enliven the soul." 

Mr. Wesley's Preserv. against unsettled notions, p. 244. 

How much more civilly, not to say cordially, this gentleman 
shakes hands with the Papists, let his own words declare : 
" Can nothing be done, even allowing us on both sides to re- 
tain our opinions, for the softening our hearts towards each 
other ? — My dear friend consider, I am not persuading- you to 
leave or change your religion : but to follow after that fear 
and love of God, without which all religion is vain. I say 
not a word to you about your opinions, or outward manner 
off worship, — We ought, without this endless jangling about 
opinions, to provoke one another to love and to good works. 
Let the points wherein we differ stand aside. Here are 
enough wherein we agree. — O Brethren, let us not still fall 
out by the way I" 

Mr. Wesley's letter to a Roman Catholic, p. 4, 8, 10. 

Far be it from me to charge Mr. Wesley with a fond- 
ness for all the grosser parts of Popery. Yet I fear the 
partition between that church and him, is somewhat thinner 
than might he wished. Or, rather, like the loving Pyramus 
and Thisbe, they endeavour to remedy the want of a perfect 
coalition, by kissing each olher through an hole in the wall. 



284 

ry denomination are much the same : and of all 
vices, bigotry is one of the meanest and most 
mischievous. Its shriveled, contracted breast, 
leaves no room for the noble virtues to dilate and 
play. Candour, benevolence, and forbearance be- 
come smothered and extinguished ; partly, from 
being erampt by littleness of mind ; partly from 
being overwhelmed with intellectual dust. Bi- 
gotry is a determined enemy to truth ; inasmuch 
as it essentially interferes with freedom of inqui- 
ry, restrains the grand indefeisible right of pri- 
vate judgment, confines our regard to a party, 
and, by limiting the extent of moderation and 
mutual good- will, tears up charity by the very 
roots. In short, bigotry is the very essence of 
Popery ; and y too often leads votaries before they 
are aware, into the bosom of that pretended 
church, whose doctrines and maxims are the worst 
corruption of the best religion that ever was. 
And though this baneful vice is so uncomforta- 
ble in itself, so contrary to the genius of the 
gospel, and so extensively pernicious in its 
effects ; yet, is it not as common as it is detesta- 
ble ? May all God's children be enabled to cast 
it with the rest of their idols, to the moles and 
to the bats ! 

You have obliquely given me a sneering lec- 
ture upon "modesty, self-diffidence, and tender- 
ness" to opponents : And, it must be owned, that 
the lesson comes with a peculiar grace, and quite 
in character from yozu The words sound well : 
But, like many other prescribers, you say, and do 
not. Else, why do you represent me as telling 
my readers, that they must, upon pain of damna- 
tion, believe that only one person in twenty 
is elected ?" Why do you introduce me as en- 
joining them to believe, under the same penalty, 
«< That the elect shall be saved, do what they 



285 

will ; and the reprobate be damned, do what they 
can ?" This is a sample, indeed, of your own 
modesty, tenderness, and self-diffidence : but, 
God forbid, that I should give such dismal proof 
of mine. I believe and preach, that the chosen and 
ransomed of the Lord, are " appointed to salva- 
tion through sanctification of the Spirit, and be- 
lief of the truth :" And, with regard to the rest, 
that they w T ill be condemned, not for doing what 
they can in a moral way, but for not doing what 
they can : for not believing the gospel report ; 
and for not ordering their conversation according 
to it. 

Let me likewise ask you, when or where I 
ever presumed to ascertain the number of God's 
elect ? Point out the treatise and the page 
wherein I assert that only " One in twenty of 
mankind are elected." The book of life is not 
in your keeping, nor in mine. The Lord, and 
the Lord only, " knoweth them that are his." 
He alone, " who telleth the number of the stars, 
and calleth them all by their names ;" calleth also 
" his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out ;" 
first, from a state of sin into a state of grace, and 
then into a state of glory. Yet, as the learned 
and devout Beza expresses himself, -" I shall ne- 
ver blush to abide by that simplicity, which the 
Holy Spirit, speaking in the scriptures, hath been 
pleased to adopt :"^ And 'tis but too certain, that 
in the scriptures are such awful passages as 
these; " Broad is the way, and. wide the gate, 
which leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
that go in thereat :" While, on the other hand, 
w Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that 
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.— 



* Me vero iflius simplicitatis, quam Sp. S. amplexus est* 
nunquam pudebit, Beza, in Mattk. ii. 2* 

24 * 



286 

Many are called, but few chosen. — -Fear not lit 
tie flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to 
give you the kingdom. — There is a remnant ac- 
cording to the election of grace. 37 Declarations 
of this tremendous import, instead of furnishing 
you with fuel for contention, and setting you on 
a presumptuous and fruitless calculation of the 
number that shall be saved or lost ; should rather 
bring you on your knees before God, with your 
hand upon your breast, and this cry in your lips : 
" Search me, O Lord, and try me ; prove me 
also, and examine my thoughts. Shew " me 
to which class I belong. Give me solid proof 
that my name is in the Lamb*s book of life, by 
making it clear to me that I am in the faith. ' ? 
And ever remember, that true faith utterly dis- 
claims all ground of pretension to justification 
and eternal life, but on the sole footing of God's 
absolute grace, and the Messiah's finished re- 
demption. Pelagianism is for serving the Deity, 
as Pope Celestine III. is said to have treated the 
Emperor Henry VI. It quite kicks off the 
crowafrom the head of sovereign grace, and makes 
the will of God bend, and truckle, and shape it- 
self to the caprice of man. Arminianism, some- 
what more specious, but altogether as pernicious, 
cuts the crown in two, by dividing the praise of 
salvation between God and man, and fairly runs 
away with half. On the contrary, the faith which 
is of Divine operation, acts like the Emperor 
Charles V. when he retired from the throne i It 
resigns the crown entirely, and renounces it for 
ever, without reserving so much as a single jew- 
el for itself. 

Should the Holy Spirit vouchsafe to lead you 
thus far ; you will then no longer be ready to ob- 
ject, " That the elect shall be saved, do what they 
.will :" For you will know by heart-felt experi- 



287 

ence, that the converted elect are, and cannot but 
be, ambitious to perform all those good works, in 
which God hath ordained them to walk ; and to 
act worthy of him, who hath graciously and ef- 
fectually called them to his kingdom and glory. 
Your pretended fear of Antinomianism, like 
your real fear of the Comet, which was expect- 
ed to have appeared a few years back, is per- 
fectly idle and chimerical. You publicly testified 
your apprehensions, that the latter would dry up 
our rivers, and burn up our vegetables, if not 
reduce the earth itself to a cinder. But your 
prophecies proved to be, " The baseless fabric 
of a vision :" and our rivers, trees, and earth, 
remain as they were, — Nor will the doctrines of 
grace, experimentally received into the heart, 
destroy or weaken the obligations of morai # vir- 



* Consciousness of guilt, and dread of detection, frequently 
put bad men upon entering those accusations against their 
opponents, which, without such a timely precaution, they are 
justly apprehensive, will be charged upon themselves ; like 
the apostate spirits in Milton, who were for turning their own 
torments into weapons against heaven. Such is the prudent 
conduct of very many Armenians. Fully aware, that their 
own lives are none of the best, they affect to cry out against 
Calvinism, as though she was the very mother and nurse of 
licentiousness. Were she really so, what myriads would de- 
sert the standard of Arminius, and flock to the banner of Cal- 
vin ! But all, who are capable of discernment know, that the 
pretended licentious tendency of Calvinism (so called) is no- 
more than idle flourish and empty declamation. Were the 
doctrines of grace unfavourable to strict morality, we should 
quickly see them the reigning system of the age. On the 
contrary, they are therefore at present unfashionable, because 
they make no allowance for the wickedness of the wicked. 
'Tis a fundamental axiom with us, who abide by the princi- 
ples of the reformation, that holiness of heart and life is (not 
the cause, price or condition, but which adds infinitely 
stronger security to the interests of moral virtue) an essential 
and inseparable part of that very salvation, to which the elect 
were chosen from everlasting. A Calvinist must, conse- 



288 

tue. On the contrary, they will operate on 
the practice, not like your scorching comet 
on our globe ; but like the genial beams of 
the sun, which diffuse gladness, and occasion 
fruitfulness, wherever they arise. Whoever wish- 
es in earnest to lead a new life, must first cordi- 
ally embrace the true old doctrine of salvation by 
grace alone. — In short, your own tenet of sin- 
less perfection, leads directly to the grossest An- 
tinomianism. I once knew a lady whom you 
had inveigled into your pale, and who, in a short 
space, professed herself perfect. Being in her 
company some time after, I pointed out a part of 
her conduct, which to me seemed hardly com- 
patible with a sinless state. Her answer was to 
this effect : " You are no competent judge of my 
behaviour. You are not yourself perfectly sanc- 
tified ; and therefore see my tempers and actions 
through a false medium. I may to you seem an- 
gry : but my anger is only Christian zeal." I could, 
moreover, mention the names of some of your 
quondam followers, who from professing them- 
selves sinless, have cast off all appearance of god- 
liness, and are working all manner of iniquity 
with greediness. If you are in search of Anti- 
nomians, truly and justly so called, }^ou must 
look for them, not among those whom you term 
Calvinists, but among your own hair-brained # 



quently, renounce both the letter and the spirit of his own 
constitutive principles (i. e. he must cease to be a Calvinist} 
ere he can, consistently, degenerate into a sensualist. 

* I might, with too much justice, add, that some of Mr. 
W.'s own lay-preachers are indisputably to be numbered 
among practical Antinomians. These, however, are regard- 
ed by their partisans as very excellent men, that have not yet 
attained to perfection, though they are in a fair way for it. 
If Mr. Wesley should have the front to deny, that any of his 



289 

perfectionists. Had not you yourself (to re- 
mind you of but one instance) a proof df it, not 
very long ago ? You formed a scheme of collect- 
ing as many perfect ones as you could, to live to- 
gether under one roof. A number of these flowers 
were accordingly transplanted from some of your 
nursery-beds to the hot- house. And an hot- 
house it soon proved. For, would we believe it ? 
the sinless people quarrelled in a short time at 
so violent a rate, that you found yourself forced 
to disband the select regiment. Had you kept 
them together much longer, that line would have 
been literally verified in these squabbling mem- 
bers of your church militant ; 

a The males pull'd noses 3 and the females caps." 

A very small house I am persuaded would hold 
the really perfect upon earth. You might drive 
them all into a nutshell : but to return. 

I cannot dismiss your objection, concerning 
the supposed fewness of God's truly -elect peo- 
ple, without observing, that how few soever they 
may appear, and really be, in a single genera- 



preaching mechanics are men of loose lives, I have it in my 
power to appeal to facts, which a tenderness for those per- 
sons, as individuals of mankind, and a concern for the honour 
of human nature in general, restrain me at present from hold- 
ing up to public view. Nor would I be thought to hint at 
these things with pleasurable tviumph. I feel too strongly 
for the interests of christian obedience, and for the happiness 
of souls, to exult over the vices of the vicious ; but, when men 
whose lives would be a disgrace to heathenism ; when men, 
whom Socrates or Seneca would have blushed to own for 
disciples ; take upon them to arraign the doctrines of the 
Scriptures, and of our established church, under a pretence 
of guarding against those immoralities of which they them* 
selves are notorious and noon-day examples. What can such 
shameless railers expect, but to have their own real crimes 
deservedly exposed ? 



290 

tion, and as balanced with the many unrighteous 
among whom they live below; yet when the 
whole number of the Redeemer's jewels is made 
up — when the entire harvest of his saints is ga- 
thered in* — when his complete mystic body is 
presented collectively before the throne of his 
Father : they will amount to an exceeding great 
multitude, which no man can number. On earth 
the company of the faithful may to us who know 
but in part, resemble Elijah's cloud, which at first 
seemed no "bigger than a man's, hand:" where- 
as in the day of God, they will be found to over- 
spread the whole heavens. They may appear 
now, to use Isaiah's phrase, but as " two or three 
berries on the top of a bough, or as four or five 
in the most fruitful branches thereof;" but they 
shall then be like the tree in Nebuchadnezzar's 
vision, " the height of which reached unto hea- 
ven, and the sight of it to the end of all the 
earth : the leaves whereof were fair, and the 
fruit thereof much." The kingdom of glory 
will both be more largely and more variously 
peopled than bigots of all denominations are 
either able to think, or willing to aUow. 

Go now, Sir, and dazzle the credulous with 
your mock victory over the supposed reproba- 
tion of " nineteen in twenty." Go on to chalk 
hideous figures on your wainscot ; and enjoy the 
glorious triumph of battering your knuckles in 
fighting them. But father no more of your hi- 
deous figures on me. Do not dress up scare- 
crows of your own, and then affect to run away 
from them as mine. I do not expect to be treat- 
ed by .Mr. John Wesley with the candour of a 
gentleman, or the meekness of a Christian ; but 
I wish him, for his reputation's sake, to write 
and act with the honesty of an heathen* 



291 

You affect to be deemed a minister of the na- 
tional church. Why then do you decry her doc- 
trines, and as far as in you lies, sap her disci- 
pline ? That you decry her doctrines needs no 
proof : Witness for example, the wide discrepan- 
cy between her decisions and yours, on the ar- 
ticles of free will, justification, predestination, 
perseverance, and sinless perfection ; to say no- 
thing concerning your new-fangled doctrine of 
the intermediate state of departed souls. ^ 

That you likewise do not overflow with zeal 
for the discipline! of the Church of England is 
manifest not only from the numerous and intri- 



* In Mr. Wesley's first edition of his notes on the New 
Testament, published in 175S 9 are the two following" asser- 
tions : than which, even he himself has, perhaps, never given 
a more striking* specimen of presumption and inconsistency. 
" Enoch and Elijah are not in heaven, but only in paradise ;" 
note on John iii. 13. " Enoch and Elijah entered at once in- 
to the highest degree of glory, without first waiting in para- 
dise :" note on Rev. xix. 20. This it is to be wise above 
what is written ! 

f Mr. Wesley's rebaptization of some adult persons is 
another proof of this charge. I could point out by name 
more than one who have undergone from his hands a reitera- 
tion of that sacred ceremony. I shall only at present, men- 
tion a single instance, which I had from the person herself, 
with permission to publish her name at full length, in case 
Mr. W. should deny the fact. Mrs. L. S. now living in South- 
wark, was baptized" in a bathing tub, in a cellar, by Mr. John 
Wesley ; who, at the time, held her down so very long under 
water, while he deliberately pronounced the words of the ad- 
ministration, that some friends of her's, who were present, 
screamed out from an apprehension that she was actually 
drowned; and she herself was so far gone, that she began to 
grow insensible, and was lifted out of the water but just time 
enough to save her life. Yet this is the man, *who, in the 
writings which he has published to the world, professes to 
hold infant baptism, and that by sprinkling, not by im» 
Hiersion ! 

Quo teneam Vultus mutcmum Protea JVodo P 



192 



cate regulations, with which you fetter f your so- 
cieties, but from the measures you lately pursu- 
ed, when a foreign mendicant was in England, 



f The rules of what Mr. Wesley calls the Band- Societies, 
demonstrate the miserable servitude of those who are ad- 
mitted into that gossiping club. The whole of these rules 
would be too tedious to insert. One or two of them, as sam- 
ples of the rest, may not be unacceptable to the reader. 

" To speak, each of us in order, freely and plainly, the time 
state of our souls ; with the faults we have committed in 
thought, word or deed ; and the temptations we have felt 
since our last meeting." 

" To desire some person among us to speak his own state 
first, and then ask the rest in order, as many and as search- 
ing questions as may be concerning their state, sins and 
temptations." 

Among the questions proposed to such as are candidates 
for admission into this pretended sanctum sanctorum, is the 
following : 

" It is your desire and design to be on this and all other 
occasions entirely open, so .as to speak every thing that is in 
your heart without exception, without disguise, and without 
reserve-" 

The printed account from whence these extracts were 
taken verbatim, adds ; that the five following questions are 
to be asked at every meeting : 

1. " What known sins have you committed since our last 
meeting ? 

2. " What temptations have you met with ? 

3. " How was you delivered ? 

4. " What have you thought, said or done, of which you 
doubt whether it be sin or not ? 

5. " Have you nothing you desire to keep a secret ?" 
The reader doubtless will, on this occasion, be reminded 

of the popish practice of auricular confession. For my own 
part I make no scruple to acknowledge, that confession as 
managed in the church of Rome, is infinitely preferable to 
confession, as conducted under the auspices of Mr. Wesiey. 
In those countries, where Popery is established, confession is 
made only to one person, and he a priest : who, if he divul- 
ges what is made known to him under the character of con- 
lessor, is liable by law to suffer death. But in these Band 
Societies, the most open and unreserved confession is, it 
seems, made in the hearing of a dozen or twenty ©Id w©~ 



293 

who went by the name of Erasmus, and styled 
Mmself Bishop of Arcadia. This old gentle- 
man passed for a prelate of the Greek church ; 
though to me, it seems not improbable that he 
might rather be a member of the Romish. This 
much, however, is certain ; that the chaplains 
of the then Russian Ambassador here, knew no- 
thing about him ; and that to this day the Greek 
church in Amsterdam believe him to be an im- 
postor. With regard to this person, I take the 
liberty of putting one or two queries to you. 

1. Did you, or did you not, get hirn^ to ordaiix 
several of your lay-preachers, according to the 
manner of wJiat he called the Greek ritual ? 



men and boys, who are at liberty to blab out all they hea£, 
without being obnoxious to any penalty at all, 

I shall only transcribe from the above account the two fol- 
lowing rules, imposed on these same societies : 

1. u To wear no needless ornaments ; such as rings, ear- 
rings, necklaces, lace, ruffles. 

2. " To use no needless self-indulgence ; Such as taking 
snuff or tobacco ; unless prescribed by the physician." 

* There is something vastly curious in the letter of or* 
Hers which this vagrant gave to the persons he pretended to 
ordain. I once saw an original letter, or certificate, of this 
kind, signed by himself. It was written in very mean Greek 4 
and which added to my persuasion of Erasmus's being 1 an im- 
postor, was drawn up, not in the modern Greek which the 
Christians of that church now use, but in the ancient : and 
If I am not greatly mistaken the words were likewise ac- 
cented. I read it over twice ; and most sincerely wish I had 
taken a copy of it : But at that time I regarded it only as an 
article of present curiosity. — A friend of mine, however, 
who improved bis opportunity rather better, took a transla^ 
tion of it ; which, on my after request, he favoured me with ; 
and upon the strength of memory, I can venture to assure 
the public, that the version is materially a just one. I be* 
lieve it to be perfectly so. It runs thus : 

" Our measure from the grace, gift and power of the all- 
holy and life-giving Spirit, given by our Saviour Jesus 
Christ to his divine and holy apostles, to ordain sub-deacons 
and deacons ; and also to advance to the dirnitv of a priest, i 
%5 



294 

2. Did these lay-preachers of yours, or did 
they not, both dress or officiate as clergymen 
Of the church of England, in consequence of 
that ordination ? And under the sanction of youf 
own avowed approbation ; notwithstanding, put- 
ting matters at the best, they could only be mi- 
nisters of the Greek church, and which could 
give them no legal right to act as ministers of 
the church of England. Nay, did you not re- 
peatedly declare, that their ordination was to all 
Intents and purposes as valid as your own, which 
you received forty years ago at Oxford ? 

3. Did you, or did you not, strongly press this 
supposed Greek Bishop to consecrate you a bish- 
op at large, that you might be invested with a 
power of ordaining what ministers you pleased 
to officiate in your societies as clergymen ? And 
did he not refuse to consecrate, alleging this for 
his reason, that according to the canons of the 
Greek church, more than one bishop must be 



Of this grace, which hath descended to our humility, I have 
ordained sub-deacon and deacon, at Snow-fields Chapel, on 
the 19th day of Nov. 1764, and at Wells-street Chapel, on 
the 24th of the same month, Priest ; the Rev. Mr. W. C. ac- 
cording to the rules of the holy Apostles and of our faith. 
Moreover, I have given to him power to minister and teach, 
5n all the world, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, no one forbid- 
ding him in the church of God, wherefore, for that very pur- 
pose I have made this present letter of recommendation 
from our humility, and have given it to the ordained Mr. W. 
C. for his certificate and security. 

" Given and written at London, in Britain, November 
24th, 1774. 

« ERASMUS, Bishop of Arcadia." 

I cannot help suspecting, that his humility, as he styles 
himself, if the truth was known, nearly related to another 
certain old gentleman, who no less humbly writes himself^ 
Servant of the servants of God.— -His humility of Arcadia., 
and his holiness of Rome, are, I doubt not 5 sons of one anc? 
the sums ecclesiastical mother, 



295 
present to assist, at the consecration of a new 



one 



? 



4. In all this, did you or did you not palpably 
violate a certain oath, which you have repeatedly 
taken ? I mean the oath of supremacy : part of 
which runs thus ; 

" And I do declare that no foreign prince, 
person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath or ought 
to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre- 
eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, 
within this realm : so help me God." 

Now is not the conferring of orders an act of 
the highest ecclesiastical power and authority? 
And was not this man a foreigner ? And were 
not the steps you took T a positive acknowledg- 
ment of a foreign power and jurisdiction ! And 
was not such acknowledgment a breach of your 
oath ? 

It matters not whether Erasmus was in fact 
an impostor or a genuine Greek Bishop, Unless 
you was very insincere, you took him to be what 
he passed for. If you did not, you was party to a 
fraud. Either way, pretend no longer to love the 
church of England! you who so lately endeavoured 
to set up imperium in imperio 1 If you are honest, 
you will either publicly confess your fault; or, 
for ever throw aside your gown and cassock. 
You will either return to the service of the 
church, or cease to wear her livery. — You may 
think, perhaps, that I make too free, in expostu- 
lating with you so plainly. And yet on maturer 
thought, I question whether you may or not. 
How can Mr. Wesley, who on all occasions makes 
so very free with others, be angry with young 
translators for copying (though at a humble dis- 
tance) so venerable an example. Nor indeed 
ought a person who, beyond even what truth 
and decency permit, take so great liberties with 



296 

the rest of his contemporaries to wonder, if so 
far as decency allow, the rest of his contempora^ 
ries take as great liberties with. him. 

You complain, I am told, that the evangelical 
clergy are leaving no stone unturned " to raise 
John Calvin's ghost, in all quarters of the land." 
If you think the doctrines of that eminent and 
blessed Reformer to be formidable as a ghost ; 
you are welcome to do all you can toward lay- 
ing them. Begin your incantations as soon as 
you please. The press is open : and you never* 
had a fairer opportunity of trying your strength 
upon John Calvin, than at present. Only take 
eare that you do not, with all your skill in theo- 
logical magic, get yourself into a circle, out of 
which you may find it difficult to retreat— -And 
xi little to mitigate your wrath against the raisers of 
Calvin's ghost, remember, that you yourself have 
been a great ghost-raiser in your time. Who raid- 
ed the ghosts of John Goodwin, the Arminian re- 
gicide ; and of Thomas Grantham, the Arminian- 
Baptist ? who raised a ghost of Monsieur* De 



* As a specimen of Mr. Wesley's regard to, at least tli£ mi* 
bullae of Popery, I shall select a few passages from his life of 
rhis Monsieur Be Renty, which now lies before me. The rea- 
der will observe, that the sentences enclosed with inverted 
commas are Mr. Wesley's own words-. 

He speaks favourably of this French Papist, for his regu- 
larly " saying the Itinerarium" and then " singing the Lita? 
-dcs of our Lord," before he set out on any journey ; and for 
taking due care to " sing the Vespers" while he was upon the 
road — page 3- Among the instances of Monsieur's humility, 
are reckoned (page 9 and 10.) his not permitting "a cushion 
to be carried for him" when he went to mass ; and his fre- 
quently saying " his prayers at the outside of the church. 5 * 
Also his going abroad to visit a monastery " on foot," and 
that too " in thawing weather :" nay, he would sometimes 
*' traverse, in a manner, all Paris," even when " it poured 
down with rain." And yet, with all this mad humility, Mr 
De Renty, it seems, kept a coach of his own. Had he been 



297 

Renty the French Papist ; and of many other Ro- 
mish enthusiasts ; by translating their lives inta 
English for the edification of Protestant readers ■■? 



consistent, he would have entirely shorn himself of this su- 
pernumerary convenience, by laying- down his carriage. But 
then, where would have been the merit of spontaneously tra- 
versing" all Paris on foot when it poured down with rain ? His 
dutiful demeanour to the priest, which had the care of his 
soul, as its father-confessor, is a feature of Mr. De Rency's 
saintship, on which Mr. Wesley, with peculiar rapture, dwells 
raid dilates. Page 11. " A further proof of his humility, was 
fcis carriage to his director. He did nothing that concerned 
himself without his conduct. To him he proposed whatever 
lie designed either by speaking or writing, clearly and punc- 
tually ; desiring his advice, his pleasure, and his blessing up- 
on it ; and that with the utmost repect and submission. 
And without reply, or disputing, he simply and exactly fol- 
lowed his order." This was good Catholic obedience indeed ! 
and, no doubt, Mr. Wesley had a view, in proposing such an 
example to the imitation of his Protectant followers. Under 
the article of De Renty's " self-denial and mortification," we 
are informed (page 14.) that " he made but one meal a day 
for several years," and " always of the worst provisions he 
could meet with." He would "often step into a baker's 
shop," and dine on fS a piece of bread and a draught of wa- 
ter." From the same principle of gloomy and unthankful su- 
perstition, he would do penance, by " passing the night in a 
chair," or lying down "in his clothes and boots," or- sleep- 
ing 1 " on a bench till morning." Being at Pontois, " in win- 
ter," he desired " the Carmelite Nuns not to make a fire, or 
prepare a bed" for him. " He parted with several books," 
(page 16.) " because" they were " richly bound." He " used- 
no gloves in any season ; wore no clothes, but plain and 
close made ;" and " carried no silver" in his pockets, " ex- 
cept for charity." After which detail of austerities, the bio- 
grapher gravely adds, " I have seen him in his coach, with a 
page and footman." His coach., I presume, was to carry him 
on foot, when it rained ; his page was to hold up his clothes, 
which were plain and close made ; and the office of the foot- 
man was to reach him his gloves, whereof he wore none in 
any season. Who could ever have surmised, that such a 
doleful series of mortification and self-denial would end in 
the fopperies of a coach, a page, and a footman ! Mr. De 
Renty's vanity, which mixed itself with his very austerities, 
reminds nie, of what I am told is common in the streets of 



293 

Should you take any notice of this letter I have 
three requests to make ; or rather, there are three 
particulars on which I have a right to insist : 

1. Don't quote unfairly. 

2. Don't answer evasively. 
•3. Don't print clandestinely. 

Paris ; where you may see many a blind beggar bawling foj; 
alms in a bag-wig, his hat under his arm, a wooden sword 
by his side, and paper ruffles adorning the hand that is ex- 
tended to receive charity. But to return to the hero of the 
tale. Having had a quarrel with his mother, and the breach 
being made up, " he was no sooner returned home, than he 
caused Te Deum to be sung," page 24. " He had great re- 
spect to holy persons; especially to priests. Whenever he 
met them, he saluted them with profound humility ; and, in 
his travels, would alight off his horse to do it," page 33. Son 
does Mr. Wesley omit to inform us, page 39, of Mr. De 
Benty's regard to such fugitive Papists, as had either render- 
ed themselves obnoxious to the laws at home, or preferred 
begging in France, to living under an heretical government 
in Great-Britain. " He was the first that motioned some re- 
lief to the poor English, driven by persecution out of their 
own country." Nor must his very pilgrimages be overlooked, 
* s Going, one day, to visit the holy place of Montmatre ; af- 
ter his prayers said in the church, he retired into a desolate 
part of the mountain, near a little spring : there he kneeled 
down to prayer; and that ended, he dined on a piece of bread 
and a draught of water." Page 45. Would it not have been 
still more devout, not to have dined at all on such holy 
ground ? " One day he visited a person, who, from a ground- 
less suspicion, had cruelly used his wife. Mr. De Renty ac- 
costed him with such soft language, that he was persuaded, 
at length to go to confession, which he had not done in 
twelve years before*" Page 47, 48. Himself, says Mr. Wes- 
ley, speaking of Mr. De Renty's last illness, " made his con- 
fession, almost every day till his death." Page 62. 

I dismiss these, and many other passages in this obnoxious 
performance, without farther remark. Their tendency is 
self-evident. I shall only add, that, if the reader has a de- 
sire to see still more enormous instances of Romish supersti- 
tion and fanaticism, he will find them in Mr. Wesley's lives 
of some Spanish monks, (who, more nationally grave, did not 
imitate the French ascetic, by retaining their coaches, pages.* 
and footmen) in the last volume, or last but one of jfcds com.* 
$nlation, entitled The Christian Library. 



299 

Canvass the points of doctrine wherein we dif- 
fer, as strictly as you can. They will stand the 
test. They scorn disguise. They disdain to sue 
for quarter. Truth like our first parents in 
a state of innocence, can shew herself naked with- 
out being either afraid or ashamed : " And he 
that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds 
may be made manifest that they are wrought 
in God." 

May you at last, begin to act from this princi- 
ple, and no longer prostitute your time and talents 
to the wiredrawing of chicanery, and the circu- 
lation of error ? I am not insensible of your parts : 
But alas ! what is distinguished ability, if not 
wedded to integrity ? No less just, than ingeni- 
ous, is the remark of a learned and noble writer : 
4C The riches of the mind, like those of fortune, 
may be employed so perversely, as to become a 
nuisance and pest, instead of an ornament and 
support to society."^ 

I am, 

Yours, &c. 

AUGUSTUS TOPLADYc 



Dialogues of the dead* p. 297. edit. 1F6& 

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